470 Coleopterological Notices, IV. 



The legs are veiy short, the tibia? strongly mueronate within at 

 apex, and more or less strongly carinate and grooved along the 

 sides, the tarsi moderate in development, with the third joint more 

 or less broadly bilobed or emarginate ; the ungues are somewhat 

 variable in length, but never very long. 



Our species can be readily divided into two groups, which might 

 be considered of subgeneric value, were it not for the fact thai 

 B. caUida constitutes a connective bond in the important character 

 relating to the form of the scutellum. The first of these groups is 

 characterized by a robust form of body, a greater development of 

 the sparse setae, broadly sinuate external outline of the tibite, feebly 

 marked transverse impression at the base of the beak, and a trans- 

 verse broadly impressed scutellum, the other by a variable but 

 nearly always more slender form of body, less developed setaj, 

 straight tibiiB, strongly marked l)asal impression of the beak, and a 

 smaller subquadrate or rounded and unimpressed scutellum. In the 

 first, the anterior coxa? are always very narrowly separated, while 

 in the second they are generally much more widely so, although 

 never very remote when compared for example with Onychobaris, 

 their distance asunder being always less than their own width. I 

 find no appreciable difference between the groups in the nature of 

 the impression of the prosternum, the latter being very variable in 

 degree ; it is sometimes quite marked, but cannot well be made use 

 of in a tabular arrangement of the species. It occasionally disap- 

 pears completely. 



The buccal opening is deep, and has, at the bottom, a long slender 

 truncate process, serving as a pedestal for the mentuni, the latter 

 being small and obconical. In the species of the first group the 

 sides of the buccal opening are more or less prolonged downward, 

 forming lateral plates for the protection of the oral organs, espe- 

 cially developed in strenua. In the second group, however, the sides 

 of the fissure are horizontal and perfectly continuous with the flat 

 under surface of the beak. The mandibles are small, stout, arcuate 

 and distinctly overlap when closed. 



The sexual characters are more marked than in most of the other 

 genera with exposed pygidium, the male being nearly always easily 

 recognizable by the distinct impression at the middle of the abdo- 

 men toward base. It is somewhat singular that this impression, in 

 the present case, is always more sparsely and finely punctured than 

 the neighboring surface of the abdomen, while in Blapstinus, of the 



