6 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.76 



3a. Eyes generally very prominent; rostral sculpture coarser and deeper; pronotal 

 tubercles forming about a hemisphere and nearly always sharply isolated; 

 pronotum less transverse (23 to 19 in male; 27 to 21 in female — average 

 of 6 specimens of each sex); South Atlantic region. herricki Pierce. 



4. Eyes large; prothorax relatively small and with conspicuous tubercles. Texas. 



plumosus, new species. 



MESAGROICUS MINOR, new species 



Eighty-five specimens. Length, 3-4.2 mm. Width, 1.4-2.1 mm. 

 Oblong, scaly covering dense, often also with a thin crust or exuda- 

 tion which more or less obscures the pronotal tubercles and the 

 individual scales of elytra. Scales brown, dorsum of elytra often 

 with some irregular pale and dark blotches, the pale areas rarely 

 extending over most of the upper surface; a band around upper 

 margin of eyes, sides of prothorax, humeral spot, margins of elytra, 

 and undersurface generally paler. Scales on undersurface and on 

 femora with a slight opalescent or coppery luster. Legs and antennae 

 reddish. The pale specimens show dark mottlings on elytra and 

 dark median and sublateral prothoracic stripes. Base of prothorax 

 with a narrow, collarlike constriction extending partly or wholly 

 across dorsum. 



Rostrum as long as exserted portion of head, quadrangular in cross 

 section, nearly flat to more or less deeply concave from eyes at least 

 as far forward as the antennal insertion, and also with a narrow 

 median groove which may or may not be continued up on to front of 

 head; nasal plate feeble, surface behind it subglabrous and coarsely 

 sculptured. Sculpture of head and beak, with scales removed, dense 

 and more or less strigose; setae more numerous along sides of rostral 

 sulcus and in a patch above eye. Eyes moderately to strongly 

 prominent, subcircular to oval. Scape feebly biarcuate, slender in 

 basal %, distinctly enlarged apically; first funicular segment stouter, % 

 to ji longer than second, the latter longer than broad, third to seventh 

 moniliform, seventh broader than sixth but, as a rule, not strongly 

 transverse. Sides of prothorax strongly rounded in female, less so 

 in male, fore and hind margins subtruncate, apex feebly constricted 

 or not; pronotal tubercles small, generally obscured by the crust, but 

 with their punctate and setose summits almost always plainly visible. 

 With scales removed, the tubercles are shown to be uneven in size 

 and shape, with a tendency to run together, some of them formed by 

 the coalescence of several very small tubercles. Elytra with base 

 distinctly emarginate, humeri rounded and merging into the slightly 

 arcuate sides; scutellum minute or invisible, sutural interval some- 

 times slightly elevated for a short distance near base; elytra not 

 striate, but with regular rows of large, close-set punctures that are 

 so nearly concealed by the scales and crust that they appear as 

 minute black dots; intervals nearly flat, each with a regular row of 

 short setae that are separated by their own length or more; when 



