viii INTKODUCTION. 



is noteworthy from the strong nabellation of the antennae in the males and the almost 

 glabrous body in the females, the antennae in this sex being serrate. One of its 

 species, C. laportei, is extremely variable in colour. 



The Dascillidse is a family of considerable extent, and one, as regards its exotic 

 species, almost entirely neglected by Coleopterists, no one having hitherto attempted 

 to deal systematically with the very numerous tropical members of the group. The 

 North- American forms, however, have been monographed by Dr. Horn, and his work 

 has been of great assistance to me in dealing with the Central-American species. The 

 extreme fragility of these insects is well known, and it is perhaps for this reason that 

 they have been so little studied. It is a significant fact that up to the time of writing 

 not a single species of Ptilodactyla had been recorded from within our limits, whence 

 no fewer than fifty-nine are here described, the genus, in fact, being one of the most 

 characteristic in the Central-American fauna. 



The total number of Dascillidae from all parts is given in the ' Munich Catalogue ' 

 (1869) as 228, with thirty-one genera, and about one hundred species have since been 

 added. America north of Mexico has (Henshaw, 1895) lifty-two species, with twenty- 

 three genera. From Central America no fewer than 130 species are here recorded, these 

 belonging to twenty genera, seven genera and 116 species being treated as new. The 

 majority of the Central-American species belong to two genera only, Ptilodactyla (59) 

 and Scirtes (21), this last-mentioned genus apparently greatly outnumbering Cyphon 

 in the tropics, nine species only of the latter being at present known from within our 

 limits. The Tropical-American genus Artematqpus represents a very distinct section 

 of the family ; eight species are described from the southern portions of our region. 

 The other Central- American genera — like those of North America — each contain but 

 few species. 



G. C. C. 



August 1897. 



