84 Coleopterological Notices, III. 



of the under surface being surprisingly constant throughout the 

 genus when compared, for example, with that of Mycetophila. 



The posterior tarsi are always slender, with the basal joint elon- 

 gate and sometimes slightly less, but often much greater, in length 

 than the remainder. The punctuation and pubescence are, as a 

 rule, rather dense, the latter pale, somewhat short, coarse and con- 

 spicuous. The eyes are generally moderate and subequal in size in 

 the two sexes, but sometimes larger, approaching the form seen in 

 Lobopoda ; they are then nearly always subject to the sexual modi- 

 fications characterizing that genus. The antennae are usually slen- 

 der and filiform, moderate in length, with the joints more or less 

 obconical, sometimes stouter and distinctly attenuate toward apex, 

 the third joint being nearly always equal to or slightly longer than 

 the fourth and similar in the sexes, but in a moderate number of 

 species becoming very short in the male, although still normal in 

 the female. 



The general form of the body is oblong or oval, rather compact, 

 with the prothorax subequal in width to the base of the elytra, the 

 humeri never being in the least broadly exposed at base. The 

 elytra are almost invariably distinctly punctate-striate, although in 

 many cases the strial punctures become obsolete toward apex as in 

 Lobopoda, and in one instance — inquilinus — the striae are com- 

 pletely effaced throughout, being traceable with great difficulty only 

 in the immediate neighborhood of the base. 



While the species are usually constant and easily separable among 

 themselves by marked structural differences, sexual or otherwise, I 

 have found the tabular classification of them a most difficult and 

 unsatisfactory problem. None of the structural peculiarities so 

 valuable in separating allied forms, continue constant throughout 

 a sufficient number of species to enable us to define large groups 

 with rigorous exactness, and I have been forced finally to adopt a 

 method of subdivision depending largely upon general habitus and 

 sculpture. 



There are probably but few species common to the United States 

 and Mexico, at least below the latitude of Durango. Mr. Cham- 

 pion has kindly sent me representatives of his emmenastoides, palli- 

 dus, colonoides, guatemalensis and americanus, all of which are 

 widely different from any species which we possess. The densely 

 punctate species, so characteristic of the southwestern fauna, are for 

 the most part more or less local in distribution, contrasting strongly 



