New Beetle Species Groups 
89 
denser, transverse meshes; apical groove a little shorter; left copulatory 
piece absent. 
Description. — Length 4.0-4. 6, mean 4.3 mm. Form as in simplex but 
paler, slightly more depressed, virtually glabrous, elytral disc highly 
polished, transverse meshworks of microsculpture denser, and no trace of 
pruinose microsculpture. Head slightly transverse, labrum doubly 
emarginate. Pronotum as in simplex. Elytra with longitudinal striae more 
shallowly impressed, feebly punctulate, inner 3 striae regular, fourth stria 
irregular, outer striae obsolete. Aedeagus 0.66-0.70, mean 0.68 mm, of 
same form as that of simplex but a little smaller and apex even less 
produced; transfer apparatus a single sclerite, apparently homologous to 
right piece of simplex : large, rather heavily sclerotized, margins parallel, 
concave to left, apex bluntly rounded but scarcely knobbed. 
Type series. — Holotype male (American Museum of Natural 
History) and 4 paratypes, Sheals Cave, 0.8 km e of Celina, Clay Co., Ten- 
nessee, 3 December 1960, T. C. Barr. Six additional paratypes, Sheals 
Cave, 28 February 1959, 7 April 1960, and 11 August 1965, T. C. Barr 
and J. R. Holsinger. 
Measurements (in mm). — Holotype, total length 4.04, head 0.70 long 
X 0.74 wide, pronotum 0.76 long X 0.90 wide, elytra 2.20 long X 1.48 
wide, antenna 2.80, aedeagus 0.68. 
Distribution.— Known only from the type locality cave, from which 
1 1 specimens are available. 
Discussion : Two beetles collected in August, 1965, are late tenerals, 
suggesting midsummer eclosion. Most of the specimens were taken under 
rocks in a depression in the floor of the entrance room, well within the 
twilight zone, in an area kept moist by a constant drip from the ceiling, or 
from the damp silt floor in a small domepit or along the cave stream not 
far from the entrance. The entrance room is approximately 75 m long, 
and the cave extends another 180 m along a narrow stream channel. The 
species is sympatric with P. inquisitor, which is noticeably smaller and 
belongs to the cumberlandus group. Both species are about equally abun- 
dant, judging from the size of the type series (1 1 fowlerae, 10 inquisitor ), 
which were obtained on four separate visits to the cave. 
cumberlandus group (new group) 
Size small to medium (3-5 mm); moderately pubescent, form 
variable, usually rather slender and depressed, robust and convex in a few 
