74 TERTIARY COLEOPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Bledius f^corum sp. nov. 

 PI. VIII, tig-. 9. 



Head subquadrate, slightly longer than broad, with very gently rounded 

 sides, slightly prominent eyes, and roundly truncate hind margin; surface 

 with a fine, scarcely perceptible granulation. Antennae fragmentary and 

 detached, but apparently not reaching the middle of the thorax; the most 

 that can be said is that the basal joints (beyond the first) are slender, that 

 beyond they increase slightly in size and are scarcely broader than long on 

 the apical joints, the last of about equal length and breadth and obpyri- 

 form. Thorax about one-fifth broader than the head, transverse, being 

 about half as broad again as long, with gentlj^ convex subangulate sides, 

 acute anterior and slightly obtuse posterior angles, the front margin very 

 gently concave and hind margin as g'ently convex, the surface sparsely and 

 somewhat obscurely punctate. Elytra nearly as long as the head and 

 thorax together and somewhat broader than the thorax, slightly broader 

 than long, with rounded humeral angles, the apical margin truncate with a 

 slight obliquity, the surface faintly and sparsely punctulate, with faint signs 

 of a sparse pubescence; that the lateral declivent portion of the elytra was 

 separated from the dorsal area by a sharp carina is evident from the sharp 

 line which separates the here jointly flattened fields in the specimen from 

 base to apex; nothing of this sort appears in the modern species of Bledius 

 I have seen excepting next the humeral angle ; but a nearer approach to it 

 is found in the neighboring genus Oxy telus ; since, however, there is no sign 

 whatever in the present species of the broad thoracic furrows peculiar to 

 Oxytelus, I have preferred to consider this as belonging to the present 

 genus. Abdomen considerably longer than the rest of the body, nearly 

 as broad at base as the elytra, equal for some distance, but in the three 

 apical segments rapidly and conically narrowing to a blunt point, the surface 

 scarcely granulate, with no evident signs of pubescence. 



The species seems to belong to the armatus group and to be most 

 nearly though still rather distantly allied to B. flavipennis LeC. — a some- 

 what smaller species. It would appear to have been of a fusco-ferruginous 

 color. 



Length, 5.6 mm.; breadth, 1.3 mm. 



Green River, Wyoming; one specimen. No. 186, Dr. A. S. Packard. 



