52 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 
abdomen alutaceous and micro-reticulate, the elytra still duller and 
finely rugulose, the pronotum polished and devoid of minute sculpture; 
head small, scarcely longer than wide, very much narrower than the 
elytra, the punctures moderately large, coarser than elsewhere and well 
separated; basal joint of the antennae a little longer than the next 
three combined, the third much longer than the second or fourth, which 
are equal; prothorax but slightly elongate, much narrower than the 
head, the sides feebly arcuate, the apex much narrower than the base; 
punctures fine and sparse, feeble and inconspicuous; elytra slightly 
longer than wide, large, parallel, one-half wider and two-fifths longer 
than the prothorax, finely, rather feebly, very closely and confusedly 
punctate; abdomen nearly as wide as the elytra, rather tapering pos- 
teriorly, finely, feebly and rather closely punctulate. Male not at 
hand; female with the second ventral unmodified, the third with a 
small rounded and feebly elevated flattened tubercle before the middle, 
the apex simple; fifth and sixth segments each with two widely sepa- 
rated larger setigerous punctures on the disk behind the middle, the 
latter arcuato-truncate at tip. Length 8.8 mm.; width 1.45 mm. 
TOXAS. eee cece sees cece nccescccessesccccscsseceveesssprospiciens Lec. 
According to Horn, the male has the third ventral lobed, 
but as this lobe seems to vary noticeably in form among the 
very few known examples, there may be several closely allied 
species of Biocrypta. As might be anticipated from its 
affinity in many directions with Hesperobium, the sixth ven- 
tral in the male is angularly emarginate, differing in this way 
from any known species of G'astrolobium. 
Ababactus Shp. 
The comparatively minute delicate species assigned to this 
genus, inhabit the warmer parts of North America and form 
the closest approach in our fauna to the European Crypto- 
bium. At the same time they differ very much from Crypto- 
btum in general habitus, and the two genera are not very 
closely allied. The species described by LeConte under the 
name Cryptobium lepidum is in every way congeneric with the 
west coast Ababactus pallidiceps and appears to be a typical 
Ababactus, although I have not seen the type species, but its 
true affinities were overlooked by Dr. Horn in his revision of 
Cryptobium. The two species represented in my cabinet 
may be readily identified by the following characters : — 
