146 Psyche [October 



A NEW BRACHYELYTROUS TROGOSITID BEETLE 

 FROM COLORADO. 



By H. F. Wickham, 

 Iowa City, Iowa. 



Nearly twenty years ago, in July, 1897, 1 spent a few days in the 

 San Juan range of the Rockies, near Ouray, Colo. A considerable 

 number of wood-frequenting species of Coleoptera were taken at 

 that time, most of which were duly indentified and listed in my 

 published catalogue of the beetles of the state, but a single speci- 

 men of remarkable aspect foiled all attempts to locate in North 

 American genera. In brachypterous structure, it reminded one 

 of the Staphylinidse or of certain Nitidulidse like Conotelus but 

 did not go well into either of these families. Eventually the insect 

 was put aside with a lot of other more or less obscure forms and 

 entirely forgotten, but on looking through some boxes a year ago 

 I came across it again and, after giving it a careful study, decided 

 that the best place for it wa^ in the Trogositidae (or Temnochilidse 

 as the family is often called) although no brachyelytrous genera 

 of this group were known from the United States. A little later, 

 while looking over the plates of the volume of the Biologia Centrali- 

 Americana containing the Trogositidae (Insecta. Coleoptera, Vol. 

 II, Part 1), I recognized my capture as belonging to Cylidrella and 

 very close to C. mollis Sharp (t. c, p. 389, Tab. XII, fig. 23). 



Both Sharp and Leveille place Cylidrella in the immediate 

 neighborhood of Nemosoma, to which genus it bears considerable 

 resemblance except in the shortening of the elytra. It might, 

 perhaps, be taken at first sight for a Clerid of the Hydnocera type, 

 but does not look just right in that company. Up to this time, 

 the genus has been monotypic and specimens seem to be very rare. 

 The specimen described by Dr. Sharp, and upon which the genus 

 was based, was an unique brought from Cerro Zunil, Guatemala, 

 by Mr. G. C. Champion who writes me, in answer to a query, that 

 he does not know of its occurrence outside of that country. Cer- 

 tainly not many specimens can have been taken in the United 

 States, or they would have attracted the attention of some of our 

 systematists and have been described long before this. The dis- 

 tribution is of very particular interest as showing another example 



