122 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



elytra, finely, closely punctate and slightly shining. Male unknown; 

 female with the sixth ventral abruptly pale in color, more convex and 

 broadly rounded at tip. Length 5.6 mm.; width 0.8 mm. Washington 

 State bipai'titnm n. sp. 



European .species, such as bicolor Er. and. incipes Er., have 

 the head much more rounded at base, the eyes smaller and 

 the antennae very much more slender and elongate than any 

 of these American forms, and it is possible that the latter 

 may begenerically or subgenericall}^ separated at some time in 

 the future ; at present they seem most fittingly placed in 

 Lobrathium , which is not by any means a subgenus of 

 Lathrohium. 



tiathrotaxis n. gen. 



The species of this genus are of larger size than any of 

 those which follow in the Lathrobia, comparing well in 

 stature with the less numerous and far more localized Lathro- 

 tropis. The body is parallel and rather depressed, the coarse 

 punctures always very sparse, except on the abdomen, where 

 they are fine and close-set but not so dense as to give the dull 

 and lustreless appearance characterizing most of the subsequent 

 genera and resembling Linolathra more in this respect. The 

 strongly marked anterior angles of the prothorax, in connec- 

 tion with the broad depressed form, shining surface and 

 sparse, coarse sculpture, give to the members of Lathrotaxis 

 a peculiar and pronounced habitus, differing greatly from the 

 three genera immediately precedingbut imitated in the minute 

 forms constituting the genera PseudolatJira, Linolathra and 

 others of this group. The thirteen species in my cabinet are 

 distributed over the entire region north of Mexico and below 

 the Canadian boundary, but are notably more abundant in 

 the south and represented by only one or two species in the 

 northeastern states, where Lailirohium and Lathrohioma are 

 so abundant ; they may be readily identified by the following 

 outline descriptions : — 



Body black or piceous- black, wiih the elytra and sometimes also the pro- 

 thorax, paler 2 



Body black throughout 11 



