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COLPODES. 



101 



In his second monograph of this genus, published in 1878, Chaudoir enumerated 223 

 species as belonging to it ; the number existing in collections, however, is far greater 

 than this large total. They are distributed over the warmer regions of the earth, 

 chiefly within the tropical zone, though they are very much less numerous in the 

 wooded plains near the equator than in the mountains or in latitudes further removed 



north or south, Mexico, Central America, and the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador 

 being especially rich in species. In Southern and Eastern Asia and the neighbourin 

 islands the genus is also well represented ; and many species occur in New Zealand, 

 Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands, although, singularly enough, none are yet 



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known from Australia or Africa. One species only is at present recorded from 



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temperate North America. 



Colpodes is distinguished from Anchomenus and Platynus chiefly by the form of the 



penultimate joint of the tarsi, which is more or less bilobed, instead of triangular or 



slightly emarginated. This peculiarity, however, is very far from being uniform ; 



marked in the more 



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and the outer longer than the inner, it degenerates in others into a simple emargination 

 of the joint, the outer angle retaining its relatively greater length ; but the anterior 

 tarsi are the least aifected by the changes of form, being in all the species more or less 

 distinctly and equally bilobed. The soft hairy clothing of the soles of the tarsi, which 

 Chaudoir mentions as also a generic character, is still less constant : in the more typical 

 species the hairs are numerous and soft ; but in many others the tarsi present the same 

 scanty rows of bristles as in Platynus and Anchomenus. 



A Colpodes is in most cases recognizable as an Anchomenid of long and slender form, 

 with legs, antennae, and palpi more elongated than in the allied genera. The colours, 

 though various, are seldom quite like those prevalent in Anchomenus j, even when 



metallic. 



The species are nearly all arboreal in their mode of life ; and this will reasonably 

 account for their tarsal structure, if, as may be supposed, they are Anchomeni and 

 Platyni modified to suit climbing habits. 



§ 1. Episterna metathoracica brevia, jpostice vix angustata 



l. Colpodes prostomis. 



Colpodes prostomis, Bates, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 598 \ 



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oblongus, niger, nitidus, elytris violaceo-tinctis, palpis gracilibus antennisque rufo-piceis ; capite 



mandibulis 



quadrato, supra lsevissimo, antice pro'pe angulos angustato, postice longius et minus, vix sinuatim angus- 

 tato, angulis posticis subrectis apice obtusis, margine laterali subsequaliter explanato-reflexo ; elytris 

 oblongis, valde convexis, apice sinuatis, fortiter (prope apicem profundius) striatis, interstitiis paullo 

 convexis, 3° tripunctato ; metasterni episternis brevibus. 



" Tarsi articulo 4° bilobo, lobis valde insequalibus, 



" Long. 6^-7 lin. 6 $ " 



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