Coleopterological Notices, III. 21 



ful from the fact that similar differences, in the male sexual charac- 

 ters at the apex of the abdomen, are observable in specimens appa- 

 rently taken in the same locality. I have observed them in examples 

 said to have been collected in Oregon, and forming- part of the cabi- 

 net of Mr. Ulke, and Dr. Horn states (Tr. Am. Ent. Soc, XVIII, 

 p. 41) that they are equally visible in specimens in his own cabinet 

 taken in Yancouver Island. 



Nevertheless there are some circumstances which lead me to 

 believe that this is not a case of ordinary fortuitous variation, the 

 chief of which is the apparent want of any known male specimen 

 in which the modification of the fifth segment is truly intermediate 

 between the forms figured on Plate IY, Yol. Y, of these Annals. 

 Another singular fact is the remarkable disparity in general form 

 and several important structural characters, as exhibited in the 

 assumed male type of spiculatus — represented by a specimen in 

 my cabinet taken near the shores of Cceur d'Alene Lake, Idaho — 

 and the specimens taken by Mr. Meeske at Las Yegas, New Mexico. 



Not being able, therefore, to be fully satisfied that the species 

 described by me as neomexicanus is actually the same as spiculatus, 

 it seems only right that the question should be held in abeyance 

 until more material can be collected in both of these, as well as in 

 other, localities. When this is done, and if it be then proved that 

 the two names are truly synonymous, I believe that it will be 

 demonstrated at the same time that the male of spiculatus is 

 dimorphous. 1 



PRION US Geoff. 

 The following species is allied to imbricornis : — 



P. debilis n. sp. — Narrow, subparallel, rufo-testaceous, the elytra pale 

 brownish flavate, thin and almost coriaceous ; lustre moderately shining. 



1 Since this was written I have compared the females of the two forms in 

 question, and find that the mandibles of spiculatus are bidentate internally, 

 the teeth being situated before and behind the middle respectively, while in 

 neomexicanus there is but one tooth, situated at the middle ; in the latter the 

 basal joint of the antennae is much shorter than in the former in both sexes, 

 but especially in the female. Having in mind the comparative constancy of 

 female structural characters, these observations tend to materially strengthen 

 my original position, in regarding the two specimens of spiculatus and four of 

 neomexicanus which I have before me, as representative of two distinct but 

 rather closely allied species. Spiculatus inhabits the Pacific districts, extend- 

 ing inland toward the north and descending along the Rocky Mountains as 

 far as Colorado ; to the southward of this limit it is replaced by neomexicanus. 



