Memoirs on the Coleoptera/Volume 1/New Species of the Staphylinid Tribe Myrmedoniini/Tribe Myrmidoniini/Group Athetæ/Atheta/Phasmota

by Thomas Lincoln Casey

Phasmota n. subgen.

The type of this subgenus is one of the most minute of the Athetids, of subparallel and moderately convex form, the mesosternal process very short, not extending to the middle of the contiguous coxæ and with its sharply angulate apex finely aciculate, separated from the small but angulate metasternal projection by a very long deep interval, at the bottom of which the longitudinal ridge is very thin and laminiform. The tarsi are moderate, the first four joints of the posterior short and subequal.

Atheta (Phasmota) ingratula n. sp.—Rather slender, nearly parallel, moderately shining, the punctures very minute and rather close-set, sparse on the abdomen, the vestiture rather close and distinct; color pale piceous, the head darker, the elytra paler, the abdomen feebly clouded medially, the legs pale; head nearly as long as wide, the eyes well developed, nearly as long as the tempora, the latter but feebly swollen, the carinæ fine though clear and even, entire; the antennæ short, very slender basally, gradually and rapidly, strongly incrassate distally, the outer joints strongly transverse, the last longer than the two preceding, the second cylindric, much longer than the third, which is strongly constricted basally; prothorax but slightly transverse, only just visibly wider than the head and a little narrower than the elytra, widest anteriorly, the sides feebly arcuate, straighter basally; elytra somewhat transverse, the suture slightly longer than the prothorax, the apices narrowly and scarcely visibly sinuate externally; abdomen finely, not densely punctate, parallel, only slightly narrower than the elytra, the fifth tergite longer than the fourth. Length 1.22 mm.; width 0.25 mm. Mississippi (Vicksburg).

The contiguous coxæ and short mesosternum betoken some affinity with Metaxya and Hydrosmecta, but the antennæ are wholly at variance. There are no visible sexual modifications.