Cephisus brevipennis sp. nov.

(Fig. 15 B)

Type locality. Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

Diagnosis. The short tegmina, scarcely more than 2x as long as the pronotal width and only 8.0– 10.5 mm long, give these insects a robust appearance. Head of male 0.85x as wide as pronotum (lateral margins of pronotum thus shorter than 3/4 length of eye), in female 0.80x as wide; crown weakly sloping, not coplanar with front part of pronotum. Tawny, tegmina brown, dark brown on clypellus, lower fifth of frons, lower parts of pleura and terminal segment of rostrum; pronotum sometimes with widely interrupted transverse black band; corium with two dark bands across middle and sometimes tips also dark brown. Style apically constricted, with small but prominent apical process and narrow, weakly hooked dorsal process on inner edge (Fig. 15 C); theca shaft short, slender, recurved, armed with a pair of short, curved, tapered lateral processes, and a pair of ventral processes 1.5x as long as lateral pair, extending beyond midlength of shaft (Fig. 15 B). Length: male 10.1–11.0 mm, female 12.7–13.5 mm.

Types. Holotype male, MEXICO: S.L.P. —[Ciudad] Valles, 18 May 1952 (M. Cazier, W. Gertsch & R. Schrammel). Paratypes: MEXICO: 7 males, 2 females, same data as holotype; 1 male, Tabasco —Teapa; 29 June. All types in AMNH.

Remarks. The constricted style apex and short, tapered lateral processes of the theca show this to be a sisterspecies of C. laticeps, from which it may be distinguished by the shorter theca shaft and ventral processes.

Distribution. Apparently confined to the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from just west of Tampico (just south of the Tropic of Cancer) to just south of Villahermosa near the Yucatán Peninsula.

Etymology. Brevi-, short; pennis (n), wing.