84 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



are acute but not impressed, and the metathoracic areas are all indistinct- 

 ly present, the central area large and pentagonal, and the tips of the late- 

 • ral areas acute but not thorn-like. In the areolet the inner and outer 

 sides scarcely converge in front, and the outer side and that next the dis- 

 coidal cell are shorter by i than the other 3, which are equal. Radial area 

 short, its posterior angle about 120°. First recurrent vein very obtusely 

 angulated. First joint of the abdomen 2^ times as long as wide, 2^ times 

 as wide at tip as at the extreme base, gradually dilated from near the base 

 to the extreme tip, the spiracles not tuberculiform. Joint 2 as long as 

 wide, and twice as wide behind as before; 3 full twice as wride as long; 4 

 shorter and entirely black; the rest greatly retracted, but the normal white 

 «pot on 7 very plain. Length $ .23 (.33 Cress.) Front wing $ .18 inch. 



One ? ; (^ unknown to me. Mr. Cresson describes the ist and 

 3d joints of the flagellum (= 3d and 4th of antennae) as subequal ; 

 but this can scarcely be so in a Cryptus.* His single specimen 

 was from Colorado. But for the retraction of the terminal joints 

 of the abdomen, my specimen would measure more in length. 



Genus BASSUS, Grav. 

 In this genus the coloration and size appears to be pretty con- 

 stant, the only variations of any consequence occurring in the 

 lateral spottings of the abdomen and in the size of the facial white 

 spot of $ . The hooked or clavate spot overlying (not underlying) 

 the humeral suture is very characteristic oi B assies^ though it oc- 

 curs also in a few other genera, e.g. Lampronota and Tryphon. 

 The bullae A and B are represented in the first Section by two 

 faint semibullae in the 2d cubital cell, one at its upper corner, and 

 one at the point where the 2d recurrent vein joins it ; and, as C 

 and D are confluent, there are in the first Section two complete 

 bullae only, CD and E. In the second Section A is absent, B 

 distinct, and C and D confluent as in the first Section ; and here 

 there are consequently three bullae, B, CD, and E. In both Sec- 

 tions E is remarkable for being located very close to the angle of 

 the I St recurrent vein. 



Section i . — Areolet obsolete. 



Bassus [Scutellaria, Cress., Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. ii. p. 112].—$.— 

 Black, /^earf subopaque, finely and rather densely punctured, subglabrous 

 and polished on the vertex and clypeus. Orbits from the vertex to the cly- 

 peus, a roundish spot of very variable size on the middle of the face, and 



♦ The first ahd second joints of the flagellum (= third and fourth of antennae) are, I find, 

 equal or subequal in length in nearly all the species of Cryptus known to me ; therefore Mr. 

 Walsh could not have really meant what he has written.— Crbsson. 



