182 HISTERID A. 
Fam. HISTERIDA*. 
The Central-American representatives of this family are arranged under 28 genera 
and include upwards of 240 species; two genera and about one third of the total 
number of species are described as new. The chief interest of the series centres in the 
species which feed on the wood-boring Coleoptera of other families, and owing 
to the excellent methods which have been employed in obtaining the specimens the 
new and interesting species of this class are numerous. New forms of Tryponwus and 
Teretriosoma (eight of the former and five of the latter), which belong to some of the 
more curious forms of the Coleoptera, have been brought to light; and the greater part 
of them are recorded as coming from the forests of considerable elevation, places 
which have now been visited almost for the first time for systematic collecting. The 
myrmecophilous species are very few in number; two very remarkable genera, Terapus 
and Kenia, however, inhabit Mexico. The Saprini, although fairly numerous, do not 
give many novelties, but this may be accounted for by their inhabiting the plains and 
alluvial districts, which have always been easy of access to ordinary collectors; and also 
from the facility with which insects of their habits, congregating in numbers where 
they find their food, fall into the hands of entomologists. Amongst the ‘ Hololeptini’ 
Lnoderma dorcoides and Hololepta canalicollis are remarkable for their specific charac- 
ters; but in the other species of this group there is a uniformity of appearance and 
structure which renders special notice of them unnecessary. Oxysternus is not as yet 
known from Central America; it may, however, be found eventually on the Isthmus 
of Panama. 
In a faunistic analysis of the genera it is important to observe the presence of such a 
small number of species of Platysoma. In the Eastern Archipelago similar methods to 
those employed in amassing this collection would probably have resulted in the capture 
of sixty or eighty species, even if the investigation should be limited to the area of one 
or two islands; so that it seems as though the functions of Platysoma are carried on 
in Central America by Paromalus, Phelister, and the larger species of Carcinops and 
Epierus, genera which contain many species of subcortical habits, and all especially 
abundant in the tropics of America. 
Of the remarkable genus Homalopygus two species are now known from Central 
America. 
PHYLLOMA. 
Phylloma, Erichson in Klug’s Jahrb. der Ins. 1834, p. 96. 
This genus includes ten species, all from Central or Tropical South America. With 
the exception of P. corticale, Fabr., the species are all rare and only represented in our 
cabinets by a very few specimens. 
* By G. Lewis. 
