Brazilian Baring 355 



which has a median puncture; the mandibles are non-decussate 

 and rather short, but forming an angle when closed. Antennae 

 slightly behind the middle, moderate, the first two funicular joints 

 moderately elongate and between two and three times as long as 

 wide, the outer joints slightly transverse, the club small, oval, not 

 as long as the three preceding joints, with its first segment glabrous 

 and polished. The prosternum is large, flat, very remotely sepa- 

 rating the coxae and having, in the male, two short and rapidly 

 acuminate spines, subporrect, nearly at the extreme apex and 

 separated by a broad and feeble, simple concavity of the surface. 

 The legs are rather short, the anterior (o 71 ) only a little longer, the 

 tibiae not fimbriate, the tarsal claws moderate, slender, free and 

 evidently diverging, the anterior femora with a short obtuse inferior 

 tooth far beyond the middle. The prothorax is narrowly and 

 feebly tubulate, the small short basal lobe deeply sinuate, the 

 scutellum well developed, free and subquadrate and the elytra 

 strongly grooved. The pygidium is moderate in size, slightly 

 oblique, wider than long and prominent along the middle, at least 

 in the male. The single species now known is the following: 



Palistes oblongatus n. sp. — Oblong-oval, depressed, polished and deep black 

 throughout; beak (cf) four-fifths as long as the prothorax, the antenna? almost 

 glabrous, piceous in color; prothorax scarcely a sixth wider than long, the parallel 

 sides broadly, evenly arcuate, rather rapidly rounding and oblique in about 

 apical third, the tubulation scarcely two-fifths as wide as the base; punctures 

 very fine and sparse, rapidly stronger and closer at the sides and, especially, 

 coarser and denser antero-laterally; elytra short, only very little longer than 

 wide, obtusely oval, with reentrant sutural angle, barely visibly wider than the 

 prothorax and only two-fifths longer; grooves very coarse, deep and punctured 

 at the sides, but much finer discally, the intervals smooth, remotely and infini- 

 tesimally punctulate; male abdomen very short, strongly convex, minutely 

 punctulate and sexually unmodified; sterna coarsely, loosely punctate; prosternal 

 spines a little longer than the femoral thickness. Length 4.3-4.35 mm.; width 

 I.8-I.9 mm. Brazil (Santarem). Two male specimens. 



Easily identifiable by the oblong flattened form and apical 

 position of the porrect male prosternal spines. 



Zalinus n. gen. 



In some respects this genus is related to Palistes, especially in its 

 parallel polished black depressed body, which is however much nar- 

 rower, and in the inflated and generally obtusely inferiorly dentate 

 anterior femora in both sexes, but the mandibles are arcuate, deeply 

 bifid and decussate, the beak of different habitus and the prosternum 

 always unarmed in the male. The beak is short, very thick and 

 compressed in the male, but much longer, thinner and thickened 

 and compressed only at base in the female; antennae short, thick, 



