REVISION OF TENEBRIONID SUBFAMILY CONIONTIN^E 109 



a specimen, taken by him at Mokelumne Hill, and I had been 

 under the impression that it represented the species which he 

 subsequently described as sanfordi, but on studying the descrip- 

 tion of the latter it is impossible to discover a single harmoniz- 

 ing character to bear out the surmise, and I therefore attach to 

 it another name as above ; it is the only species of the present 

 group known to me as occurring on the eastern side of the 

 central valley, although the exact locality of a number of the 

 species described in the table is unknown. Sanfordi, by its 

 published dimensions, must be included in the abdominalis 

 group, where, however, it is wholly isolated as before inti- 

 mated. The small species of the second section of the table are 

 distinguishable, as a group, by the peculiar segregation of the 

 elytral punctures into broad uneven longitudinal areas lying 

 between the narrower and usually somewhat elevated smooth 

 lines ; they might even be considered a distinct group by them- 

 selves. 



Group IV. Type cuneata. 



In reality this group is only a continuation of the preceding, 

 but, as the cuneiform outline of its few known members is a 

 rather striking character common to both sexes, though much 

 more feebly developed in the female, it may therefore be con- 

 sidered distinct for convenience in identification. The three 

 known species are the following : 



Body deep black in color, more or less shining 2 



Body dark piceous in color, dull and densely alutaceous, more southern 



in habitat 3 



2 Form cuneate, widest anteriorly, the male shorter and more 

 strongly cuneiform, convex, moderately elongate, highly polished 

 and deep black throughout, glabrous; head somewhat coarsely, 

 moderately closely punctate throughout, the sinus unusually deep, 

 rather narrow, the anterior canthus rather full, rounded, fully as 

 prominent as the posterior; prothorax one-half wider than long, 

 the sides evenly rounded and rather strongly convergent apically, 



true male of elongata, and some of the others also represent distinct species in 

 all probability, but I will leave this discussion for a future occasion. Perhaps 

 after all, the margination of the prosternal lobe may not be so unstable a char- 

 acter in this group as I surmised on concluding the table of its species, but it 

 should be stated that, under the circumstances, it was deemed best to distin- 

 guish by name only those forms markedly isolated in general habitus and there- 

 fore assumably having the status of true species or subspecies. 



