April', 1917 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 39 



NOTES ON A FEW EUCNEMID^ AND DESCRIPTIONS OF 

 NEW ELATERIDAE. 



By Chas. Schaeffer, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Family Eucnemidse, Microrrhagus oblitus Bonv. — Dr. Horn in 

 his " Monograph of the species of the families Eucnemidse, etc." 

 in Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, XII, p. 34, says that this species is un- 

 known to him and remarks that it apparently more closely re- 

 semhles subsinuatus than any other of our species. The last 

 named has the pronotum without anti-scutellar carina and the 

 median line impressed posteriorly while ohlita has a distinct ante- 

 scutellar carina and no median impressed line. Of the former 

 species I have two specimens and of the latter three specimens 

 which answer the descriptions very well. Specimens collected by 

 Mr. Shoemaker in Maryland and Virginia, however, show that 

 these two characters are not constant. Some specimens have the 

 prothorax distinctly impressed posteriorly and a distinct ante- 

 scutellar carina, in others the carina is represented by a smooth, 

 short line, which sometimes is slightly elevated behind ; the im- 

 pressed line may be distinct, faint or absent. The two species 

 otherwise agree so closely that I have scarcely a doubt that they 

 are one variable species. 



Microrrhagus imperfectus Lee. — This species is said to re- 

 semble subsinuatus from which it is distinguished by the form of 

 the posterior supplementary and the juxta-sultural carina. A 

 single specimen, which I refer somewhat doubtfully to this species, 

 has the outer carina of the juxta-sutural sulcus very distinctly 

 obliterated behind but the posterior supplementary carina is not 

 short but extends nearly to the middle. The length of the pos- 

 terior and often the anterior supplementary carina is variable as a 

 moderately large series will show and if no other characters are 

 present to separate imperfectus from oblitus and subsinuatus the 

 two last become synonyms of imperfectus. 



The same variation in the characters mentioned above are no- 

 ticed in my four specimens of audax, but this species has a dif- 

 ferently formed and more coarsely punctured prothorax than the 

 above named species. The variation or rather abbreviation of 



