54 
Psyche 
[March 
land or woodland habitats, and is associated with Novomessor ants. 
Description. Body color dark brown. Size 2. 5-2. 7 mm long; 
1 .7-1 .9 mm wide; 1 .4 times as long as wide, widest across pronotum. 
Pronotum 1.7-1. 8 mm wide; 1. 9-2.1 times as wide as long. Elytral 
width across scutellum tip 1.1 -1.2 times greater than elytral length 
from scutellum tip. Head and pronotum as well as elytra with stiff 
semi-erect golden hairs. Pronotal striae distinct. Elytral striae finely 
spaced, about 5 per 0. 1 mm. Aedeagus (figs. 5 and 6), with narrower 
tip in dorsal view, without terminal setae or down-curved tip in side 
view. Spermatheca with elongated crest on anterior globular bulb 
(figs. 7-9). 
Variation. No variation is noted. 
Additional material examined. Arizona. Cochise County. Hua- 
chuca Mountains, Miller Canyon, W. M. Mann coll., 1 male pinned 
with Novomessor albisetosus (Mayr) (my determination), USNM. 
Huachuca Mountains, Garden Canyon, 13 Nov. 1910, W. M. 
Wheeler, W. M. Mann colln., 1 male pinned with Novomessor 
albisetosus (my determination), USNM. Graham County. Galiuro 
Mountains, 22.5 (= 22 May), Hubbard and Schwarz coll., 1 female, 
USNM. Pinal County. Oracle, 5000 feet elev., 11 March 1919, 
W. M. Wheeler, 1 female pinned with two Novomessor albisetosus 
(F. G. Werner determination), MCZ. 
Biology. The collection data show that the beetle occurs with 
Novomessor albisetosus (Mayr) ants. Brown (1974) has indicated 
that the proper generic assignment of the ant may be Aphaenogaster. 
These ants range across much of the arid southwestern US and 
adjacent Mexico (Creighton, 1950, 1955; Wheeler and Creighton, 
1934), and so might the beetle. Since the ants occasionally nest 
under stones (Creighton, 1950), the beetles might be found there 
without the need of digging into the ants’ nests. The ants occur most 
frequently on the lower slopes of desert mountain ranges (Creighton, 
1950), and the beetle records suggest an affinity for a higher eleva- 
tion Sonoran desert woodland or grassland rather than a lower 
elevation desert shrub habitat. Although some of the above speci- 
mens were taken by W. M. Wheeler with Novomessor, nothing is 
mentioned about the presence of these beetles in his revision of this 
ant genus (Wheeler and Creighton, 1934). 
Echinocoleus sonorensis sp. n. 
Holotype male in MCZ (no. 32309). Type locality: Arizona, 
Pima County, Tucson. Type data: 1 .iv. 1970, P. Ritchie et al, in 
