New Beetle Species Groups 
95 
Description.— Length 3. 1-3.9, mean 3.5 0.3 mm. Head rounded; 
labrum feebly trilobed; antenna 0.7 body length. Pronotum transverse, 
0.87 as long as wide, margins arcuate in apical two-thirds, then oblique 
and scarcely sinuate at all to approximately right (or slightly acute or 
slightly obtuse) hind angles; widths at apex and base subequal and three- 
fourths greatest width, which occurs in apical third; base emarginate 
behind angles, secondary angles present; disc with rather long 
pubescence. Elytra elongate-oval, strongly depressed, 1.6 times longer 
than wide; microsculpture a fine, very tight, transverse meshwork; 
humeri angular, prehumeral borders almost perpendicular to midline; 
longitudinal striae 1-5 more or less complete and moderately impressed, 
intervals subconvex; apical groove short and widely rounded or (as in 
holotype) subparallel, joining third stria at anterior apical puncture. 
Aedeagus 0.48-0.52 mm long, basal bulb large but not sharply set off 
from median lobe, which is narrow and straight, its apex deflexed, 
produced, and bluntly rounded at tip; transfer apparatus a single, slen- 
der, elongate sclerite; parameres slender, with 3 apical setae. 
Type series. — Holotype male (American Museum of Natural 
History) and one paratype, Sheals Cave, Clay Co., Tennessee, 7 April 
1960, T. C. Barr. Three additional paratypes, same cave, 3 December 
1960, T. C. Barr, and 5 paratypes, same cave, 1 1 August 1965, T. C. Barr 
and J. R. Holsinger. Known only from the type locality. 
Measurements (in mm).— Holotype, total length 3.10, head 0.60 long 
X 0.62 wide, pronotum 0.65 long X 0.77 wide, elytra 1.85 long X 1.15 
wide, antenna 2.18 long. 
Distribution.— Sheals Cave is 0.8 km e of Celina, Tennessee, near the 
juncture of Obey and Cumberland rivers at the northeast margin of the 
Central Basin. 
Discussion. —The species is sympatric and syntopic with P. fowlerae 
but is noticeably smaller. It is more readily collected in summer at the 
back of the entrance room, but a few specimens occur throughout the 
year along the stream in the back of the cave. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.— I thank Dr. John R. Holsinger for 
assistance in the field, and Drs. J. Manson Valentine and the late Walter 
B. Jones for contribution of specimens. The encouragement and coopera- 
tion of Mrs. Otia Fowler, owner of Sheals Cave at the time of my visits, is 
greatly appreciated. 
