SUPrLEMENT TO PSYCHE. 



[May 1899. 



colony of the larvae in the same trunk 

 and also a good series of imagos. 

 Some of my larvae kept since January 

 have shed so many skins that they are 

 now onlv half the size they were at 

 first. While I do not suppose that this 

 Lampyrid is absolutely a cactus insect, 

 it is as much so as many of the Stapliy- 

 linidae. As I wrote before I have the 

 larvae of Maseockara vehttina m' opa- 

 cella ; they are running free among 

 the swarming insects in the rotten pulp, 

 and I see no evidence of their inhab- 

 iting the puparia of the Volucellas. 



The other day I tore to pieces a 

 cactus stump that had rotted and dried 

 up, and inside I found several cocoons 

 of the large weevil Cactophagus validus 

 that had no exit holes. I cut into one 

 with my knife and found to my great 

 surprise not only the chitinous frag- 

 ments of the weevil larva but also 

 about 90 specimens of a Colvdiid beetle 



{Bol/iridcrcs cactophagi Sz. n. sp), 

 all imagoes and all dead and more or 

 less mutilated. Among them were 5 or 

 6 skins of a dermestid larva (^Attcigeims 

 hornii) with a long thin pencil of hairs 

 at the tail and long yellowish pubes- 

 cence on the sides and beneath. There 

 was no trace of the larva of the Both- 

 rideres. I found on close inspection 

 a small ragged hole at one end of the 

 cocoon sufficient to pass out or in a 

 Dermestid or Colydiid beetle. Another 

 Cactophagus cell oi>ened by me con- 

 tained 55 species of the Bothrideres, a 

 third 76 specimens, and still another 

 cell contained a dead and moldy larva of 

 the Cactophagus and only one dead 

 imago of Bothrideres. Not a single 

 specimen of Bothrideres in the whole 

 lot is perfect. I would like to know 

 what these Bothrideres are doing there 

 in such numbers, as if they had been 

 caught in a trap and died there. 



APPENDIX. 



Description of New Species of Coleoptera. 



BY E. A. SCHWARZ. 



Cryptopleuri'm cerei, n. sp. (family 

 Hydrophilidae.) — Broadly oval, convex, 

 shining, sparsely pubescent above, piceous 

 black, antennae, palpi and legs pale testace- 

 ous, elytra either entirely or only at apex 

 reddish. Head finely and rather sparsely 

 punctulate, second joint of maxillary palpi 

 moderately thickened at middle, not inflated. 

 Thorax, when viewed from above, with the 

 sides not rounded but obliquely narrowing 

 Irom base to apex; the inflexed portion 

 separated from the dorsal surface by a distinct 

 ridge ; angle of the true marginal line slightly 



behind the middle; base not margined; 

 surface rather sparsely but evenly and finely 

 punctulate, inflexed portion smooth. Elytral 

 striae rather fine, not strongly punctured, 

 distinctly impressed apically, less distinctly 

 so toward the base, the two inner striae very 

 fine, very finely punctulate and not impressed 

 from the base to the middle; intervals fiat, 

 sparsely and finely punctulate. Prosternal 

 area nearly opaque, moderately finely and 

 quite densely punctulate ; mesosternal area 

 much longer than in C.americanum, coarsely 

 but not very densely punctate; metasternum 



