306 Coleopterological Notices, VII. 



two or three joints densely clothed beneath in part with short and 

 rather coarse papilliform pubescence. The dilatation is alwaya 

 feeble, and, in cordatus, becomes barely appreciable, but the 

 pubescent pads beneath are still evident though narrow. 



The species are abundant but sometimes very closely allied 

 among themselves, and the systematic treatment of them offers 

 many obstacles to the reviewer. This has been essayed thus far 

 only by Dr. Horn (Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, YII), but the author in 

 that article assuredly exercised an undue amount of caution in 

 discriminating species, placing together such forms as elevatus 

 and unicolor, angusticolHs and velutinus, and distributing a con- 

 siderable number of what seem to be valid species as varieties 

 and races of a few more salient types in Brennus. Besides this, 

 quite a number of hitherto unknown forms have come to light in 

 recent years, so that another revision of Brennus and Pemphus 

 has become desirable. This is my only excuse for the present 

 attempt, which will undoubtedly be severely criticised in certain 

 quarters', because of the numerous species proposed. I would 

 gladly have the number less, for several reasons which it is not 

 necessary to dwell upon, but I cannot smooth or otherwise modify 

 the complexity of nature, and can merely portray it imperfectl^y ; 

 to lump the various forms together in composite descriptions 

 would not be simplification, but rather mystification for future 

 reviewers. That a considerable number of species are none the 

 less valid in this genus, which may be compared in this respect 

 with Coniontis, for being mutually distinguishable only by a 

 number of points not involving special disparity of structure, 

 but constituting marked divergence in habitus, is evidently 

 proved in many cases by ample series of examples. 



Brennus is confined in geographic range to the true Pacific 

 coast faunal province, but is exceedingly abundant and wide- 

 ranging within those limits, constituting one of the most charac- 

 teristic carabid elements of the region. 



The forms which I have deemed worthy of distinctive names^ 

 are briefly diagnosed in the following table. In this table the 

 groups based upon the number of elytral striae are, in all proba- 

 bility, natural aggregates, but in many species it is difficult or 

 impossible to count the striae correctly, and experience will be 

 necessary before deciding upon the proper group in some cases. 

 The species with 16 striae have the side margin of the elytra. 



