92 Memoirs on the Coleoptera 



straighter basally, the angles more broadly rounded; base a little 

 narrower, scarcely as wide as the apex; surface, impressions and 

 fove^e nearly similar; elytra narrower, less parallel, very faintly 

 inflated posteriorly, twice as long as wide and twice as wide as the 

 prothorax, similar at apex; striae still finer, excessively faint and 

 discernible only under very close observation, not at all punctulate. 

 Length (cf) 5.0 mm.; width 1.35 mm. Canada (Toronto), — ■ 

 Wickham fragilissimus n. sp. 



In both these species the sutural stria is more impressed and 

 more distinct than the others. The dimensions of nigriceps, as 

 given by LeConte, 6.2 by 2.5 mm., are so different from the reahty, 

 as observed in my British Columbia specimen, that, in conjunction 

 with the statement that the thoracic median stria is "tenuissima," 

 it may possibly be something not quite the same specifically; if 

 LeConte did not habitually overstate the dimensions of the smaller 

 species, we might consider these circumstances more seriously. 

 The length is reduced to 5 mm. in the " Brooklyn Bulletin." 



Sericoda Kirby 



In founding this genus upon a very remarkable species with 

 dense silky surface lustre and pronounced sculpture, Kirby laid 

 principal stress upon what he conceived to be a small retractile 

 segment at the apex of the fourth palpal joint, which was probably a 

 small particle of foreign matter, as there is no trace of this feature 

 in my specimens. It is advisable to preserve the genus, however, 

 because of the habital peculiarities, which are pronounced, although 

 only a moderate proportion of the species have the dense and 

 opaquely sericeous elytral lustre. There is considerable diversity 

 in the form of the thoracic angles, besides the variety of sculpture 

 and lustre, for, though the basal angles are very obtuse in all, the 

 tips are strongly marked or rather sharp in some and rounded or 

 obliterated in others, such as the Calif orni an variolata of LeConte. 

 In the variolata and qtiadripunctata. sections, the iovHr or five dorsal 

 punctures of the elytra are notably large and conspicuous, and 

 they are very distinct though less impressed in the opaculate 

 bemhidioides section, while in the ohsoleta group they become 

 minute, very inconspicuous and only three in number, the distance 

 between the two anterior very much greater than that separating the 

 two posterior. I have been unable to identify the species described 



