122 MISCELLANEOUS FOREST INSECTS. 



Most readily recognized by the very finel}^, densely, confusedly 

 punctured elytra, with the pubescence long, dense, fine, and decum- 

 bent, and the margin of the prothorax strongly trisinuate. 



There is great variation in size, as usual. The side margins of the 

 prothorax are generally straight, sometimes slightly curved inward, 

 and the prothoracic punctures are generally fine. 



Material examined. — A series of more than 100 specimens. Dis- 

 tributed throughout tlie eastern and southeastern United States. 



Lyctus curtnlus Casey. 

 Lyctus curtulus Casey, 1891, p. 15. 



One of the smaller species, easily separated from parallelopipedus 

 Melsheimer by its coarse elytral punctation, average smaller size, 

 and prothoracic structure, and from californicus Casey by its much 

 shorter, robust form, denser elytral pubescence, coarser and less 

 sinuate arrangement of elytral punctures, and in being much less 

 shiny. 



There is considerable variation, more especially in size and colora- 

 tion, and likewise in the density and size of the prothoracic and 

 elytral punctures, in the convergence of the sides of pronotum, in 

 the sinuation of its anterior margin (the latter sometimes becoming 

 feebly trisinuate), and in the degree of depression of the epistoma. 

 A single specimen from Bonner, Mont., difi^ers quite noticeably in 

 several respects from the more typical examples of curtulus, and may 

 represent an undescribed species. However, it is placed here until 

 more specimens show it to be distinct. 



Material examined. — A series of more than 300 specimens. Dis- 

 tributed throughout the southwestern United »States. 



Lyctus politus n. sp. 



Tijpe. — Cat. No. 7432, United States National Museum; U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, No. 7414; one of 21 specimens collected 

 and reared by Dr. F. H. Chittenden from licorice at Washington, 

 D. C. 



This species is readily separated from hrunneus Stephens by its 

 much shorter, broader form, more shiny, finely and less densely punc- 

 tured prothorax, and by the structure of the front as outlined in 

 the synopsis (p. 118). 



There is considerable variation in size, and to a less extent in the 

 convergence of the sides of the prothorax posteriorly, and in the 

 pronotal punctation. 



It is possible that this species has been already described, but the 

 author has been unable to place it in any of the species of which he has 

 had specimens or descriptions and has, in consequence, described 

 it as being new. 



