PALAMINUS. 631 
PALAMINUS. 
Palaminus, Erichson, Gen. et Spec. Staph. p. 681. 
This genus consists of about fifty described species and is specially characteristic 
of the New World, its species being very numerous in South America, while there are 
nine or ten known from the United States of North America. It is also sparingly 
represented in the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan regions and in Northern 
Australia. 
It is very difficult to treat it satisfactorily, owing to the obscure external specific 
characters, and the fact that the species are scarcely ever represented by sufficient 
series of examples to allow the varied sexual characters to be properly studied. This 
is not, I believe, due so much to the actual rarity of these insects—for Mr. Champion 
informs me that they are frequently to be met with by beating foliage—as to the great 
difficulty of preserving specimens, owing to their fragile nature and the rapidity with 
which they decay if not mounted soon after capture. It is no doubt for this reason 
that we possess only a very insufficient series of examples, so that I have been obliged 
to leave a few obscure species uncharacterized. The only character I can at present 
detect to divide the genus at all satisfactorily is based on the structure of the antenne. 
The species of the first group are as a rule of more slender build than those of the 
second. 
§ 1. Antenne excessively slender; terminal joint scarcely perceptibly broader than 
that preceding it and much narrowed towards the base, which is therefore very 
slender. 
1. Palaminus lacertinus. (Tab. XVI. fig. 20.) 
Angustus, elongatus, niger; antennis, palpis pedibusque pallide flavis, palporum articulo ultimo magno; pro- 
 thorace elongato, basin versus angustato, elytris multo angustiore, irregulariter punctato; elytris fortiter 
punctatis, ad apicem fere levigatis. 
Long. 8 millim. 
Hab. Guatemaa, Cerro Zunil 4000 to 5000 feet, El Tumbador 2500 feet (Champion). 
Antenne slender, long. Head small, very coarsely punctured, bearing long pallid 
hairs, the eyes rather small. Thorax small, just as broad as the head, but not much 
more than half the width of the elytra, as long as broad, not curved at the sides, greatly 
narrowed behind, very coarsely and irregularly punctured, and bearing long pallid hairs. 
Elytra about twice as long as the thorax, very coarsely punctured and distinctly pubes- 
cent, the punctures more distant towards the hind margin, and quite absent at the margin 
itself. Hind body coarsely, squamosely sculptured. One example from each locality. 
2. Palaminus parviceps. 
Angustus, elongatus, niger; antennis (?), palpis pedibusque pallide flavis, palporum articulo ultimo majore ; 
