PHENGODES. 63 
of the Telephoride, without, however, as I think, sufficient reason. Leconte (Class. of 
Col. of N. Am. i. p. 185) casts some doubt upon their reputed luminosity, but admits 
he had never seen a living specimen. The two species known to him have the body 
wholly yellow; but in some other species which have dark bodies, e. g. Phengodes 
pulchella, Guérin, the two penultimate segments have in their centre a spot, white, 
shining, and as obviously luminous as in any of the Lampyride. 
Phengodes is the representative of a family which combines the characters of the 
Lampyride with those of the Lymexylonide, and slightly with those of the Telephoride. 
The head, the eyes, and thorax and elytra show affinity with those remarkable genera 
Dioptoma and Ochotyra, Pascoe, and with some allied species from China, of which the 
true position is not determined, and, taken in combination with those which are inter- 
mediate in form, with Atractocerus. There is not so much diversity from Luciola or 
Amythetes as from any of the true Telephoride ; and in a synthetic type such as this is, 
I do not think too much weight st should be attached to the form of the palpi or the 
insertion of the antenne. 
PHENGODES. 
Phengodes, Hoffmansegg, Ill. Mag. vi. p. 341 (1807). 
1. Phengodes bimaculata. (Tab. III. fig. 23.) 
Nigro-fusca ; prothorace, scutello et elytris ferrugineis, his obsolete bicostatis, macula subscutellari fusca, thoracis 
disco profunde canaliculato, sparsim sat fortiter punctulato; alis fuscis, nervulo marginali subferrugineo. 
Long. corporis 17-20 millim. 
Hab. Nicaraaua, Chontales (Belt). 
This fine Phengodes is larger than my specimens of either P. plumosa or P. fusciceps, 
Lec., and differs from both in the colour of the body and appendages, as well as by the 
puncturing and channel of the thorax. Head black, except the front between the base 
of the antenne and underside and the apices of the mandibles, which are pitchy red. 
Antenne fuscous; basal joint of the same dark colour as the rest. Thorax transverse, 
the lateral margins compressed and thin, and hence paler in colour than the central 
part; the latter distinctly but sparingly punctured, with a deep channel, reaching 
neither the front nor the base, and with a shallow wide fovea on each side at the base, 
and a second nearer the front; scutellum punctured, shining, with its apex roundly 
truncate. Elytra meeting round the scutellum, thence narrowed and recurved, their 
total length being about a quarter of the length from their base to the apex of 
the abdomen. Two raised nervures, one passing through the fuscous spot, the other 
bordering it externally. Excepting the spot, they are, with the anterior cox and base 
of the femora and centre of the metasternum, ferruginous. The posterior legs are quite 
black. The abdomen is dark fuscous, and shows no trace of any luminous portion. 
I cannot ascertain the sex of either of the two specimens, which are all that have 
