Coleopterological Notices, V, 425 



shining, feebly pubescent; border moderate. Legs slender, rather short; 

 four basal joints of the hind tarsi together barely three-fourths as long as the 

 last. Length 2 mm. ; width 0.7 mm. 



Alaska (Hunter's Bay, Prince of Wales Island). Mr. Wickham. 



Much broader and rather more convex than laesicolle, to which it 

 is allied. In laesicolle the fifth abdominal tergite is nearly two and 

 one-half times as wide as long, while in the present it is scarcely 

 more than twice. 



O. quadripeiiiie n. sp. — Oblong, feebly convex, black with a feeble 

 piceous tinge except on the abdomen ; legs rufous ; antennae fuscous, paler 

 toward base ; integuments polished, subglabrous, the abdomen finely, strongly 

 reticulate and alutaceous. Bead strongly, closely punctate, wider than long, 

 fully two-thirds as wide as the prothorax ; neck narrow, one-half the total 

 width ; eyes moderate, near the base ; ocelli separated by scarcely more than 

 one-fourth the total width ; surface with a deep puncture before and exterior 

 to each ocellus, also broadly impressed at each side of the large and broadly 

 rounded clypeus ; antennae as long as the head and prothorax, gradually and 

 moderately incrassate ; fourth palpal joint as wide as the third and about 

 three times as long, very feebly narrowed, the tip obtuse. Prothorax strongly 

 transverse, four-fifths wider than long ; sides broadly, evenly rounded, feebly 

 convergent and nearly straight toward base, the basal angles obtuse ; disk 

 transversely convex, feebly explanate near the hind angles, with three dis- 

 tinct median impressions, the intermediate near the apex. Elytra parallel, 

 quadrate, slightly wider than the prothorax and barely twice as long, very 

 little longer than the head and prothorax, not quite as long as wide, strongly, 

 very densel}^ punctate and obsoletely, longitudinally rugulose. Abdomen as 

 wide as the elytra and a little shorter ; segments very short ; border ample. 

 Legs short, slender ; four basal joints of the hind tarsi together scarcely more 

 than two-thirds as long as the fifth. Length 1.8 mm. ; width 0.7 mm. 



Virginia (Fredericksburg). 



Allied rather closely to for a minosum, but abundantly distinct ini 

 its broader form, larger protborax, shorter elytra, much denser 

 punctuation, shorter, broader abdominal segments and many other 

 characters; from cribrura it may be know^n at once by the roundedi 

 sides of the prothorax. 



In this and many other species there is a deep wide and oblique 

 antennal groove on the upper surface of the head near the eye, the 

 inner margin of which is frequently cariniform. It seemed at first 

 as though this might serve to define the genus Omalium better than 

 the variable posterior tarsi, but I find that it disappears in some 

 species such as lapponicum and IdesicoUe, and moreover exists in 

 some other genera gueh as Lathrimaeum. 



Annals N. Y. Acad. Sci., VII, Nov. 1893.— 28 



