510 Coleopterological Notices, V. 



SCAPHIDIID^. 



The Scaphidiidse are a small family of beetles, which to the gene- 

 ral student of the Coleoptera are less interesting than usual, be- 

 cause of their unusually small size and the monotony in outward 

 appearance characterizing the more minute forms, and, to the sys- 

 tematist, because of the fact that some of the more important scle- 

 rites of the under surface frequently become amalgamated, in such 

 a way that it is often difficult and sometimes impossible to trace 

 them. On the other hand there is sometimes a remarkable and 

 inexplicable doubling of the sutures. This obliteration of the 

 sutures, has led the author of a recent extended contribution to 

 the literature of the family into the singular error of supposing 

 that the raesosternal episterna in Scaphisoma and other allied 

 genera, are very small and hidden under the elytra, or ante- 

 humeral, while, as can readily be seen by inspecting such genera 

 as Scaphium or Toxidium, where the sutures are distinct, the 

 truth is directly the reverse, the mes-episterna being unusually de- 

 veloped and extending almost to the coxag. 



There are no new genera among the American species, and to 

 give the famih^ characters would be almost a repetition of the lan- 

 guage used by Lacordaire in the " Genera." There is but one 

 point to which reference should be made in way of criticising the 

 excellent introductory remarks referred to, it being stated (II, p. 

 237) that the metasternal parapleuras " sont compotees d'une seule 

 piece." The met-epimeron is nearly always distinct and well de- 

 veloped, although the suture separating it from the episternum 

 very rarely disappears as in Cyparium. 



In regard to the external affinities of the Scaphidiidse but little 

 can be said. A few characters seem to remind us of that olla- 

 podrida of discordances known as the Silphidae, and one or two 

 features vaguely suggest certain parallelism with the Phalacridae ; 

 but the family is really very isolated in the structure of the ex- 

 ternal skeleton, the connective bonds with other groups of Clavi- 

 cornia having apparently disappeared. 



The family comprises two distinct tribes as follows: — 



Antennae with a broad abrupt and somewhat flattened five-jointed club; scu- 

 tellurn well-developed ; mes-epimera sublongitudinal, separating the epis- 

 terna fiom the elytra throughout their extent ; met-episternal suture double ; 

 tarsi shorter and thicker; elytral punctures seriate Scapuidiini 



