COLASTUS. 269 
COLASTUS. 
Colopterus, Krichson, in Wiegmann’s Arch. fiir Naturg. viii. 1, p. 149 (1842). 
Colastus, Erichson, in Germar’s Zeitschr. iv. p. 236 (1843) ; Murray, Trans. Linn. Soc. xxiv. p. 257. 
This genus is confined to the New World, where it is numerous in species—about 
fifty being described—and extends its range from Rio Janeiro to the United States. 
The species are most of them rare, and of the majority of those described but few speci- 
mens are known, hence the specific characters are not well understood as yet, and their 
determination is a matter of great difficulty. Murray’s Cyllopodes is a well-marked 
subgenus, but his other sections are unimportant, and I do not make use of them as 
they cannot be relied on, and do not help the student in any way. 
Most of the species obtained by Mr. Champion were found in rotten fruits or decaying 
vegetable matter, or beneath sappy bark. 
Front tibie angulate externally, frequently in the male greatly distorted. 
(Subgen. CYLLOPODES.) 
1. Colastus posticus. (Tab. VIII. fig. 12, ¢.) 
Colastus posticus, Er. in Germ. Zeitschr. iv. p. 287+; Murray, Trans. Linn. Soc. xxiv. p. 258, t. 34. 
f. 17. 
Var. Colastus scutellaris, Murray, t. c. p. 259%. 
Hab. Maxtco!?%, Cordova (Sallé), Orizaba (F. D. G. & H. If. Smith), Mirador 
(Hoge), Jalapa (MZ. Trujillo, Flohr), Teapa (Hoge, H. H. Smith); GuaTeMAa, near the city, 
Zapote, Senahu (Champion); Nicaragua, Chontales (Janson).—CoLomBia, Cartagena |. 
There are two forms of the male in this species, one with strangely distorted tibiz 
as figured by Murray *, and a second in which the tibie are exactly similar to those of 
the female. The malecan be readily distinguished from the female and from the same 
sex of other species of the genus by the peculiar form of the last ventral plate and of the 
supplementary segment, the plate at the hind margin being deeply bent down in the 
middle, and the space arising from this accurately filled up by the narrow supple- 
mentary segment. The species is abundant in Mexico and Guatemala, and we have 
received more specimens of it than of all the other species of the genus together. 
It varies in colour, and the darker form was considered by Murray as distinct—this 
variety in Mexico is more abundant than the type and is found in its company; 
very rarely a pallid variety, almost without dark colour on the elytra, occurs. Our 
figure represents a female found at Teapa. 
2. Colastus guatemalenus, sp. n. 
Sat elongatus, depressus, niger, antennarum basi pedibusque rufis, femoribus obscuris, elytris singulis ad basin 
plaga ovali testacea. 
Long. 4-44 millim. 
Hab. GuateMALa, near the city, Capetillo, Zapote (Champion). 
