FAMILY MELYRIDAE 139 



PART I. 



Family Melyridae. 



As recently decreed by the leading Coleopterists of the United States, 

 the old family name Malachidae gives way to Melyridae 1 ; the latter 

 includes three subfamilies, namely: Malachiinae, Melyrinae and Rhada- 

 linae. 



Nothing of any extent has been written on the American Melyrinae 

 since Col. Casey's excellent paper published in 1895 2 . Fall added a few 

 species in 1901 3 and 1907 4 . In 1906 6 I described two new species of 

 Dasytes. 



Listrus Mots. 



The genus Listrus is proving to be more extensive and a less homo- 

 geneous aggregate than was at first suspected. Its specific units are 

 characterized by an elongate and more or less subparallel convex body, 

 more or less sparse and variegated vestiture without intermixed setae, 

 tarsi more or less variable as to length and stoutness, with the basal joint 

 of the posterior slightly longer than the second, the fifth somewhat 

 dilated toward the tip and canaliculate above at apex as usual throughout 

 the family, the anterior tibiae slender, cylindrical, usually with closely 

 decumbent ashy pubescence and only occasionally with two or three very 

 slender, distant, external spines, these being completely obsolete as a rule. 



Antennae somewhat variable as to length, more or less feebly incras- 

 sate, only slightly though distinctly serrate, with the first joint always 

 much dilated and stout apically and usually darker in color, the fifth 

 larger than the fourth or sixth, usually triangular, sometimes the sixth 

 and eighth joints are smaller than the seventh, and the eleventh more or 

 less evenly elongate-ovoidal or obovate and obtusely acuminate or truncate 

 at tip. The pronotum is dilated behind the middle, with the lateral edge 

 more or less minutely serrulate and having an even fringe of short 

 superiorly recurved setae, which are almost invariably cinereous in color, 

 the apical angles usually more or less rounded. Epipleura very narrow 

 but dilated toward base, with their plane strongly inclined upward 

 throughout. The ungual appendages are thick, equal and fully as long 



1 "Leng's Catalogue of the Coleoptera of America North of Mexico," 145, 1921. 



* "Coleopterological Notices," 6, Annals New York Academy of Sciences, 8, 

 456, July, 1895. 



8 "Occasional Papers," California Academy of Sciences, 8, 248-251, 1901. 



4 "The Coleoptera of New Mexico," Transactions of the American Entomo- 

 logical Society, 33, 236-240, 1907 (Malachidae). 



'Entomological News, 17, 74-76, March, 1906. 



