AMERICAN COLEOPTERA. 213 



in front for the reception of the middle tihire and tarsi. Epi pleurae 

 foveate for the middle and hind knees. First ventral segment short, 

 the hind feet received in shallow impressions; second segment long, 

 usually but little shorter than the three following united ; fifth a 

 little longer than the third or fourth, which are subequal. Femora 

 and tibia? subequal in length and rather slender; tarsi short, about 

 one third the length of the tibiae, first joint longer than wide, the 

 following joints transverse, the fifth strongly dilated. 



In all of our species except schwarzi there is a short arcuate and 

 oblique deeply impressed line at the sides of the prothorax behind 

 the front angles. In schwarzi this arcuate impression is reduced to 

 a small deep fovea near the middle of the side margin. 



Attention has been called under Ozognathus to the fact that the 

 genus Micranobium of Gorham is composite and unnecessary, his 

 exiguum being an Ozognathus and pulicarium a Petalium. M. Pic* 

 who now possesses the greater part of the Gorham collection has 

 noted the close similarity between M. pulicarium and the Syrian 

 Rhadine f parmata, and properly concludes that they are generically 

 identical ; but he, like Gorham, appears to be ignorant of the earlier 

 Petalium Lee, the description of which is perfectly characteristic. 

 This genus is thus seen to be widely dispersed and is especially well 

 developed in the American continent. In addition to the species 

 described by Gorham from Central America, Pic alludes to a num- 

 ber of others in his collection from Mexico, Brazil and the Argen- 

 tine Republic. To these, names are given, but the characterizations 

 are insufficient for their acceptance unless supported by further de- 

 scription. In our own fauna there is a considerable number of spe- 

 cies, but just how many it is impossible to say ; for these little things 

 conform so closely to type while exhibiting a remarkable amount of 

 variation in minor details that specific limits must for the present 

 be in a measure opinionative. Six forms are described below, most 

 of which seem separable with a fair degree of certainty. Bistriatum 

 is, however, still very complex, and it and seriatum approach one 

 another very closely in some of their variations. 



* L'Echange, No. 227, Nov. 1903, p. 171. 



f The name Rhadine is preoccupied as well as a synonym, having been used by 

 LeConte for a section of Platynus. 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC. XXXI. JUNE, 1905. 



