382 Dr. J. L. Leconte on Coleoptera 



and deeply exarate ; the last ventral segment is not convex, 

 nor subcarinate at tip. The thorax and elytra are studded 

 with scattered, large, polished granules or small tubercles, and 

 the striee are not apparent. These differences are apparently 

 generic ; but I am unwilling at present to do more than pro- 

 pose the name Phymatinus^ and to indicate it as probably be- 

 longing to the group Phytoscaphi, Lac. Gen. vi. 229. 



In all the species here mentioned, the apical cavities (cor- 

 beilles) of the hind tibiee are broad, oblique, acutely margined 

 and open at their upper limit ; and the antennal grooves, 

 though oblique, are not directed below the inferior angle of 

 the eyes. They also all belong to a great division of Curculio- 

 nidje (embracing the greater part of Lacordaire's Adelognathes, 

 with some of the short-beaked Phanerognathes, such as Eii- 

 diagogus^ among our North -American forms), which exhibits 

 a remarkable character, not known in any other group of Co- 

 leoptera : the mandibles of the freshly developed imago have 

 acute pyramidal appendages, which are deciduous, and leave 

 a well-defined scar on the most anterior part of the convex 

 outer surface of the organ. This peculiar structure has been 

 mentioned by Lacordaire (Gen. vi. p. 5, note), but without 

 attributing to it the importance which such an extraordinary 

 character, common to a large number of genera, and without 

 parallel in any other part of the series, seems to deserve. I 

 have placed, in an unfinished continuation of my ' Classification 

 of the Coleoptera of North America,' all such forms together 

 as a subfamily, under the name Brachyderidge. Sitones and 

 allied forms do not belong to this type, as the mandibles are not 

 provided with the deciduous appendage, nor does the mentum 

 cover the base of the maxillae. 



Tetropium, Kirby. 

 Tetropium velutinum. 



Nigro-piceum, opaeum, subtiliter scriceo pubescens ; prothorace lati- 

 tudine haud breviore, lateribus fortiter rotimdatis, disco confertis- 

 sime piiuctulato, salco dorsaH lato profundo, linea Iccvi polita 

 versus basin notato ; elytris basi nonnunquam piceo-ferrugineis. 



Long. 12-5-20 miUim. 



Four female specimens from Vancouver's Island, Oregon, 

 and California differ from T. cinnamoptertim, IsAxhj, found in 

 Eastern America, by the prothorax being not wider than long, 

 and more finely and densely punctulatc. This difierence ap- 

 pears to me to be specific, though I have not studied the grou}) 

 with a sufiicicnt number of specimens to give my opinion much 

 value. 



