506 CUCUJIDE. 
clypeus are less fuscescent. These colour-distinctions are so constant in the series of 
fifteen examples we have received that it is, I think, well to give the form a name, 
though ultimately it may possibly prove to be a localized variation. 
2. Palestes nicarague, sp. n. 
Capite, prothorace, mesosterno, metasterno ex parte majore, elytrorum tertia lata parte basali, femoribusque 
rufo-testaceis ; antennis, tibiis, tarsis, abdomine, elytrorumque parte majore nigris ; metasterno posterius 
utrinque fuscescente. 
Long. 10-11 millim. 
Hab. Nicaraava (Sallé), Chontales (Belt, Janson). 
Of this form I have seen four specimens. Although at first sight extremely similar ~ 
to the Brazilian P. bicolor, yet the differences indicate a different distribution, not 
mere extension, of the colour. The extent of the black colour on the wing-cases is 
slightly less in P. nicarague, the mandibles and clypeus are yellow, and even the 
terminal three joints of the antenne are ferruginous; the dark colour on the meta- 
sternum is limited to a mark on each side of the posterior part, and the dark colour of 
the ventral segments does not amount to intense black, and here and there gives place 
to a more or less vague yellow tinge, especially along the mesial line. These colour- 
distinctions are constant in the four examples, but in two of them the metasternal 
patches of dark colour are connected by an intervening third mark. 
3. Palestes abruptus, sp.n. (Tab. XVI. fig. 9.) 
Niger, pronoto, elytrorum parte lata basali, femoribusque (basalis exceptis) testaceis. 
Long. 10-12 millim. 
Hab. Panama, Bugaba, Volcan de Chiriqui 3000 to 6000 feet (Champion). 
We have received a fine series of this species, exhibiting very little variation except 
in size, and the fact that the terminal three joints of the antenne are obscurely 
rufescent to a variable extent. The black colour on the wing-cases covers about one- 
half of their area. P. nigriceps, Waterh., from Ecuador, is extremely similar to this 
form, but has the prosternum yellow. 
4. Palestes nigridens, sp. n. 
Capite cum mandibulis, clypeo late anterius, antennis, tibiis, tarsis, femorum basibus, elytrorum dimidia parte 
apicali, metasterno, abdomineque nigris; capite, prothorace, elytrorum parte basali, femoribusque rufo- 
testaceis. 
Long. 10-11 millim. 
Hab. Panama, Bugaba, Volcan de Chiriqui 3000 to 4000 feet (Champion). 
This is the nearest of the forms discovered in our region to P. bicolor; but it has 
the mandibles almost entirely black (with the exception of the somewhat rufescent 
basal lobe), the front of the clypeus broadly blackish, and the tips of the femora black. 
