PSYCHE 
VOL. XXXI. DECEMBER 1924 No. 6 
SOME NOTES ON CERCYON, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF 
THREE NEW SPECIES. 
By H. C. Fall. 
Tyngsboro, Mass. 
Some recent correspondence with Mr. Chas. Liebeck of 
Philadelphia has led to a critical exmaination of certain of our 
species of Cercyon, the results of which it seems desirable to 
make known. 
More than half (14 out of 25) of the Cercyons recorded in 
the Leng List are more or less common European species, and in 
most cases the identity of the North American and European 
forms can scarcely be questioned. Some exceptions however 
have been noted. Specimens carefully compared by Mr. Liebeck 
and found to be identical with the melanocephalus and luguhris 
of the Horn collection have been sent me for examination. These, 
on comparison with the best European descriptions and with 
authentic European representatives of the species in my collec- 
tion, prove conclusively that the melanocephalus and luguhris of 
the Horn Synopsis^ are not the true European species of these 
names. 
In the melanocephalus of Horn the palpi are said to be en- 
tirely pale. In the true melanocephalus they are black or dark 
brown. Ganglbauer, in his Kafer von Mitteleuropa, IV, p. 278, 
observes this fact and remarks in a foot note that C. melano- 
cephalus Horn = nanus Melsh and can not be the melanocephalus 
of Linnaeus. The intimation here that the species should be 
known as nanus Melsh is of course based on the published Amer- 
ican synonymy. In the Crotch List of 1873, arid the Henshaw 
List of 1885, both melanocephalus L. and nanus Melsh appear. 
iTrans. Am. Ent. Soc., XVII, Oct. 1890. 
