1970] 
Peck — Catopinae 
239 
Ecology. The species is appreciably more abundant in the less 
wet forests of the Island’s center. Two hundred and twenty eight 
specimens were collected in five traps in the moist Toro Negro 
forests of the center of the Island, while only two specimens were 
collected in 9 traps in the wet eastern montane Luquillo forest. 
Genus Proptomaphaginus Szymczakowski 
Diagnosis. Mesothoracic episternum not reaching coxal cavity. 
Metathoracic epimeron clearly transverse. Male portarsi not ex- 
panded. Flattened protibia with row of short equal spines along 
outer margin. Bilobed aedeagal apex, orifice central on ventral 
surface. 
Zoogeography. The genus is most closely related to Ptomapha- 
ginus (with 23 species limited to the Indo-Malayan region). When 
Szymczakowski (1969) described Proptomaphaginus and the 'Cuban 
species apodemus he pointed out the possible ancient significance of 
this disjunct distributional relationship. His views are not weakened 
by the addition of the following Puerto Rican species and the 
following transfer of Ptomaphagus {A delops) darlingtoni to this 
genus. 
Additional evidence is now available on the source of the original 
West Indian colonization of Proptojnaphaginus or its ancestor. The 
genus occurs on the island of Hispaniola (I have seen one 
female of a possibly undescribed species in the MCZ collections). 
I did not find it in two weeks of field work in Jamaica in 1968. 
The genus occurs in Mexico (I found an undescribed edaphobitic 
species in a cave in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi in 1969). 
It has not been found in Central America. I found none in field 
work in 1965 in Panama and Costa Rica or in 1969 in Guatemala, 
and none are in Dybas’ extensive 1959 Panama collections in the 
Field Museum. This pattern of occurrence on three Greater Antil- 
lean Islands and in Mexico and absence from Jamaica and Central 
America suggests initial derivation from Mexican lands, and not 
Central American lands by way of Jamaica. 
Proptomaphaginus puertoricensis new species 
Figs. 5-7, 10 
Holotype. Male (deposited in Museum Comparative Zoology, 
Harvard University, MCZ type #31886). Puerto Rico; Torro 
Negro Forest, Cerro Dona Juana, 28.xii.i 966-43.1 967, S. Peck, 
carrion trap, 900 m elev. Female allotype and 6 paratypes, same 
data. 
