Coleopterohgical Notices, V. 485 



R. demissa n. sp. — Moderately stout, convex, polished, dark brown, the 

 elytra paler ; integuments subimpunctate ; pubescence short, coarse, strongly 

 inclined, not very dense but distinct. Head scarcely shorter but much nar- 

 rower than the prothorax, excepting the eyes subquadrate ; fovese deep, the 

 posterior widely distant, snbapical larger, in the interantennal depression ; 

 eyes rather small, prominent ; tempora to the neck a little longer than the 

 eye, strongly rounded ; antennae about as long as the head and prothorax, 

 normal, the club gradual but heavy, the eleventh joint nearly as long as the 

 preceding four. Prothorax transverse, one-half wider than long, widest at the 

 middle where the sides are rather strongly rounded ; apex one-half as wide as 

 the disk and two-thirds as wide as the base; lateral fovese large, deep, just 

 behind the middle, visible from above, median small, near the base. Elytra 

 very feebly punctulate, together fully two-fifths wider than long, one-half 

 longer than the prothorax and nearly twice as wide; sides strongly divergent; 

 humeri broadly, obliquely rounded, not abrupt ; discal stria deep, extending 

 to apical fifth. Abdomen, from above, slightly shorter than the elytra but fully 

 as wide ; basal carina3 fine, fully one-third as long as the segment, very feebly 

 divergent but slightly everted toward apex, separated by rather more than 

 one-third of the discal width. Legs moderate ; posterior tibiae bent as usual. 

 Length 1.1 mm. ; width 0.65 mm. 



District of Columbia. 



The type is a male but with very feeble sexual modifications, 

 having the last ventral feebly flattened and the sinuation at the 

 tip of the last dorsal narrow and scarcely distinct. 



This minute species resembles congener in size but belongs near 

 polita in the Brendelian arrangement, differing in its smaller size, 

 much shorter, broader form, more transverse prothorax and elytra, 

 and in many other characters. Two specimens. 



There is a remarkable group of Reichenbachia confined appa- 

 rently to our southwestern country, which is distinguished not 

 only by curious modifications of the intermediate joints of the 

 antennae, but more particularly by the fact that these modifications 

 exist in a rudimentary manner also in the antennge of the female, 

 although the special function subserved by them in the former sex 

 apparently cannot obtain in the latter. It seems as though this 

 phenomenon might be parallel in some way with that presented 

 by the rudimentary, though well-marked, mammse of the male in 

 the higher vertebrates. 



The species of this little group may be distinguished in the fol- 

 lowing manner by the females, the males of suUilis and complec- 

 fens being unknown : — 



