158 SCAPHIDIID. 
produced in front; eyes large, not prominent; antenne moderate, yellow, with the capitulum round. 
Thorax short aud small, widest at the base; sides nearly straight; basal margin nearly straight, with the 
angles almost rectangular. Scutellum moderate, triangular. lytra broader and longer than the head 
and thorax, widest near the middle; sides moderately rounded and broadly margined; apex ovate. Legs 
moderate, yellow. Underparts wholly piceous. 
Hab. Guatemasta, near the city (Champion). 
Differs from S. hispanicus in its more ovate form, much larger head, and smaller 
thorax; and in the orbicular capitulum of its antenne. 
Fam, SCAPHIDIIDA*. 
The Scaphidiide form a distinct and congruous family, distinguished by the peculiar 
shape of many parts of their external skeleton. ‘The most conspicuous characters are 
the form of the anterior and intermediate coxal cavities; the protrusion of the side- 
pieces of the mesosternum beyond the normal outline of the skeleton; and (except in 
Scaphium) the reception of the posterior angles of the thorax into grooves on the 
epipleural fold of the elytra. The anterior coxal cavities are formed on their upper half 
by the prosternum and on their lower half by the mesosternum, and the intermediate 
coxal cavities extend in a similar manner into the metasternum. The mesosternum itself 
is often largely developed, while the side-pieces are unusually small; the epimera are 
short, sometimes linear, and do not reach more than halfway to the coxal cavities, but 
are produced at their outer extremity beyond the outline of the body; the side-pieces 
of the metasternum are on the contrary large, and in some genera very broad. 
The organs of the mouth are in all the genera fully developed, and appear to indicate 
that the Scaphidiide feed exclusively on vegetable matter. The lingua is very large 
and conspicuous. The labium follows the mentum, proceeding from its inner side near 
the base, and bearing at its anterior extremity the labial palpi; in the Scaphidiide this 
organ is short, and only extends slightly beyond the front of the mentum. From the 
inside of the labium near its base the lingua arises: it varies much in shape, but is 
more or less uniform in each separate family; in the Scaphidiide it is narrow at the 
base, immensely dilated anteriorly, rounded at the sides, and generally emarginated in 
front. On the inner side of the lingua the paraglosse are placed: they are also variable 
in shape, and in some families rudimentary or deficient; in the Scaphidiide they are 
linear divergent lobes, often of considerable size, and fringed on their inner side with 
long, curved, setiform hairs. Each of these parts, the labium, lingua, and paraglosse, 
are distinct and separate organs of the mouth, and may be dissected from each other 
without difficulty in the larger species of Scaphidium. 
In Toxidium and Scaphisoma the labial palpi are distinctly 4-jointed—a formation 
which I have long believed to exist in some genera not belonging to the Scaphidiide, 
* By A. Marruews. 
