8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.76 



The species collected by Dury at Cincinnati, Ohio, and distributed 

 as herricH Pierce, belongs here. The Cincinnati specimens examined 

 are not typical in some respects (the body being stouter, the scape 

 slightly shorter, and the elytral setae longer) and possibly may indi- 

 cate a local race. The male genitalia, however, are of the normal 

 minor form. 



The crust or exudation is more pronounced in minor than in any of 

 the other species. 



MESAGROICUS OBLONGUS, new species 



Forty-six specimens. Length, 4-5 mm. Width, 2.01-2.5 mm. 

 Close to minor in structure and appearance, but larger. Brown, pale 

 markings as in minor, and in addition some specimens with feeble 

 vittae on sutural, third and fifth intervals. Legs, antennae, and often 

 tip of beak, reddish. Scales of ventral surface and legs slightly 

 opalescent. Sculpture of head rather fine, subconfluent, finer than 

 in minor; rostrum nearly flat above, with a narrow to coarse median 

 groove which may or may not extend on to head. Rostral sculpture 

 more or less strigose, as in minor. Eyes moderately prominent, oval 

 to subcircular. Prothorax relatively shorter, male and female, than 

 in minor, the pronotal tubercles larger and better defined, and occa- 

 sionally leaving a narrow median line free; base with a narrow collar, 

 about as in minor. Elytra about as in minor, sides straighter, setae 

 slightly longer on the average, the individual scales better defined, 

 due apparently to the absence of a crust. Abdomen about as in 

 minor, the punctures slightly smaller, the impression on fifth ventral 

 of female poorly defined, and this impression feebly indicated in some 

 male specimens also. The seventh funicular segment more transverse, 

 on the average, than in minor. 



Type.—k male (Cat. No. 41747, U.S.N. M.), 4. 1 mm. long with faint 

 elytral vittae, and 20 paratypes. 



Type locality. — Lincoln, Nebr. (Wickham). 



Other localities: Nebraska (Lincoln, Shimek, Soltau, and Hubbard 

 and Schwarz); Wyoming (Cheyenne, Soltau); Kansas (Fort Scott, 

 Soltau), (Onaga, Wickham), (Onaga, Biological Survey, from stomach 

 of meadow lark, Sturnella magna)', Iowa (Sibley, Stoner), (Lake 

 Okoboji, Buchanan), (Palo Alto County, Biological Survey, from 

 stomach of toad,5?{/o americanus). 



As in rmnor, the proportions of the prothorax vary greatly, irre- 

 spective of sex, but in ohlongus this part is almost always visibly 

 shorter, especially in females. The eyes vary considerably in shape, 

 but on the whole run more to the oval outline than in minor. 

 Variations in the funicular segments are about as in that species. 



The pronotal tubercles often show two or three small punctures in 

 addition to the large, seta-bearing puncture at summit, indicating 



