NYCTOBATES.—NUPTIS. 107 
A common species in Tropical South America, becoming rarer north of the Isthmus 
of Panama. The males have the thorax larger and longer and more strongly rounded 
at the sides than the females. This and the following species vary a good deal in size, 
and also slightly in the structure of the mentum and the sculpture of the elytra. 
Guiana specimens, and one or two others from Peru and Brazil, in Mr. F. Bates’s 
collection, are rather smaller in size, the thorax a little more transverse, and the strice 
more distinctly punctured (the punctures not very closely placed) than other individuals 
from Central America and Colombia ; but in the long series of specimens before me 
intermediate forms are to be found, and I prefer to regard them as varieties or forms 
of one and the same species. 
2. Nyctobates procerus. (Tab. V. fig. 19, 3.) 
Nyctobates procerus, Hopfuer, in litt. 
Closely allied to WV. gigas, and differing as follows:—The upper surface more shining and less opaque; the 
prothorax proportionally longer and less transverse, and more narrowed anteriorly (especially in the 
female) ; the elytra more deeply sulcate, finely crenate-striate, the interstices more convex and shining, 
and more closely and distinctly (though very finely) punctured. 
Length 28-43 millim. (¢ @.) 
Hab. Mexico, Presidio (Forrer), Orizaba (coll. F. Bates), Cordova (Sallé, Hoge), 
Jalapa (Hoge); British Honpuras, Rio Hondo, Rio Sarstoon, Belize (Blancaneaus) ; 
GuaTEMALA, Yzabal (Sallé), Zapote, Pantaleon, El Tumbador, San Isidro, Cubilguitz. 
(Champion).—CotomB1A, Carthagena (coll. F. Bates). 
Sent in great numbers by Herr Hoge from Jalapa. This species is common in Mexico 
and Guatemala, becoming rarer southwards; it has not yet been received from the 
State of Panama. Labelled as above in most collections. WV. procerus may be 
separated from WV. gigas by the characters given above; it also averages rather smaller 
in size, and the muricate or crenate punctures of the strie (distinct in some examples 
and obsolete in others of W. gigas) are placed closer together. 
NUPTIS. 
? Nuptis, Motschoulsky, Bull. de Moscou, xlv. pt. 2, pp. 25, 32 (1872). 
Mentum small, feebly trilobed, inflexed on each side anteriorly, longitudinally convex in the middle, the anterior 
angles slightly acute or rounded (NV. corticalis and WV. tenebrosus) ; inner lobe of the maxille (as in Merinus) 
with a simple claw; mandibles truncate at the apex; antenne short, joints 6-11 broader, 8--10 transverse, or 
as broad as long; last joint of the maxillary palpi securiform ; head broad, the sides of the front swollen and 
slightly divergent; epistoma truncate, similar in both sexes, or in some species excavate, and with the anterior 
"margin slightly raised and reflexed, and with a short erect tubercle in the middle in the male; eyes large, 
transverse oval, intraocular space narrow ; prothorax strongly transverse, slightly rounded at the sides, the 
anterior angles rounded, the posterior angles slightly acute and formed by the reflexed basal margin, the sides 
narrowly margined, the base bisinuate, and the margin raised and grooved within ; scutellum large, trian- 
gular ; elytra closely embracing and distinctly wider than the thorax, subparallel, the humeri rounded and 
swollen, with rows of (usually) coarse impressions placed upon indistinct or shallow strie ; prosternum 
horizontal, with the apex produced and sublanciform or rounded, or declivous behind and more or less 
embracing the coxe, with the apex slightly produced and broadly rounded (the mesosternum in these species 
PP2 
