52 
Psyche 
[March 
Diagnosis. Shape widely oval or “limuloid”, elytra with long 
semi-erect golden hairs, mesosternal keel absent. These characters 
plus the habit of living with Pogonomyrmex and Novomessor 
ants in the southwestern U. S. distinguish this genus from other 
Ptomaphagini (keys to the genera are in Peck, 1973, 1976). 
Description of genus. Length 1.9-2. 8 mm. Width 1.4-1. 8 mm. 
Color pale yellowish to reddish brown. Form widely oval, 1.4-1. 9 
times as long as wide; flattened (figs. 1-3). Head compressed, closely 
retractile onto thorax; surface smooth, with short, or short and long 
hairs; eyes large. Maxillary palpi with last segment conical, shorter 
than preceding segment. Antennae short, not reaching beyond 
middle of pronotum when laid back; all segments except first three 
transverse; club somewhat flattened, composed of last eight seg- 
ments, which uniformly increase in width, so that XI is widest; 
segment VIII shorter than but as wide as VII and IX. Pronotum 
widest slightly before base; 1.7 to 2 times as wide as long; sides regu- 
larly arcuate; hind angles drawn out but rounded; hind margin 
straight in middle; striae present or absent on disc; covered with 
recumbent short or recumbent short and semi-erect long hairs. 
Elytra widest at base, 1.0-1. 2 times as wide as long; external apical 
angles rounded, hind margins truncate; sutural angles sharp in male 
and female; striae somewhat oblique to suture, more transverse 
away from suture; dense vestiture of short, recumbent hairs and 
about 10 longitudinal rows of long, semi-erect golden hairs (fig. 4). 
Flight wings fully formed and apparently functional. Mesosternum 
with evident midline but lacking median carina. Mesocoxae slightly 
separated; metacoxae contiguous. Mesepimeron of Ptomaphagina 
type, trapezoidal. Legs short, flattened; capable of being closely 
adpressed to body; all tibiae with comb of short equal spines on 
summit; protarsi expanded in males, distinctly or indistinctly nar- 
rower in females; mesotarsi not expanded in either sex; all tarsi five 
segmented. Aedeagus in side view blunt at base, gradually tapering 
to narrow tip; style of internal sac long, thin, twisted, with detached 
basal bulb; in dorsal view narrowing gradually toward tip, tip a 
blunt point; setae present or absent on aedeagal tip; parameres long, 
thin, lying close to aedeagus, with three apical setae. Genital plates 
twice as long as broad, with abundant long hairs at orifice; median 
spiculum gastrale elongate, projecting one half length beyond an- 
terior end of genital plates. Spermatheca with narrow posterior, 
and with crest on larger swollen twisted anterior end. 
