Coleopterological Notices, V. 397 



antennae piceoiis at base. Head large, slightly transverse, as wide as the 

 prothorax, feebly impressed aloug the middle ; depressed clypeus strigilate 

 and dull ; eyes convex, at a little more than their own length from the basal 

 angles, rather more prominent than the tempora, the latter straight and 

 parallel behind them, abruptly rounded at base ; antennae rather slender, 

 feebly incrassate, fully as long as the head and prothorax, tenth joint sliglitly 

 transverse, the eleventh pointed, fully as long as the two preceding. Prothorax 

 two-thirds wider than long, the sides feebly convergent, evenly and distinctly 

 ■ arcuate from apex to base, the basal angles obtuse and almost obliterated ; 

 disk with four polished feeble carinae, separated by concavities of the surface, 

 the two median very approximate, but becoming more distant from base to 

 apex, rather strongly impressed also toward tlie sides. Elytra distinctly wider 

 and longer than the prothoi-ax, the sides nearly parallel and straight; humeri 

 exposed at base ; disk flat, finely, densely strigilate, also obscurely punctate, 

 the strigilatious slightly confluent and shining toward base. Abdomen a little 

 narrower than the elytra, parallel, shining, very coarsely but feebly reticu- 

 late, minutely remotely and obsoletely punctulate, each tergite with two 

 distant erect and stiff setas at apex ; under surface polished, very remotely 

 pubescent. Legs slender, the posterior tarsi very short ; anterior tibiae not 

 angulate externally near the apex. Length 1.4 mm. ; width 0.35 mm. 



California (near San Francisco). 



Wiiile allied to nanus, this minute species differs in its coarser 

 strigilation, longer, much more slender antennae, and in the male 

 sexual characters. The sixth ventral is fimbriate at apex and sinu- 

 ate in median fifth, the seventh cylindrically impressed and finely 

 pubescent along the middle, the apex produced in the middle in a 

 small broadly rounded simple lobe, the eighth broadly impressed. 

 The mentum is coarsely, transversely grooved in the middle. 



O. nanus Erichs. — Gen. Staph., p. 797. 



O. exiglllis Erichs. — Gren. Staph., p. 798 ; pygmieus Melsh. : Proc. Ac. 

 Phila., II, p. 41 ; parvulus Melsh. : 1. c , p. 41. 



I cannot resolve the ample material in my cabinet into distinctly 

 characterized species. It is easy to select two or three specimens 

 which apparently represent species, but in all cases others are found 

 which seem to be intermediate; so it is impossible to give any dis- 

 tinguishing characters at present. The species may be readily 

 known by its opaque, minutely strigilate sculpture, less dense in 

 the female, especially on the head, and its polished subimpunctate 

 abdomen. Length 1.2-1.8 mm.; width 0.3-0.45 mm. New York 

 to Florida; Lake Superior and Texas — probably extending through 

 Mexico. 



