170 | HETEROMERA. 
head) similarly punctured ; elytra more deeply and not so finely punctate-striate, the interstices similarly 
punctured; legs and antenne reddish brown. 
Length 6 millim. 
Hab. Mexico, Jalapa (Hége). 
One example. 
Group DIAPERIDES.. 
‘Species of this group are found in almost every part of the globe; the “ Diaperides,” 
however, are far more numerous in tropical regions, more especially in the New World. 
A large number of species inhabit Central America. 
The “ Diaperides” approach very closely to the ‘“‘ Ulomides;” the two groups indeed 
are connected by such genera as Mophis, Hsymnus, &c. The large number of species 
are contained in very few genera; certain of these, Diaperis, Arrhenoplita, and Platy- 
dema, are very widely distributed ; others, Liodema, Stenoscapha, Cosmonota, Hapsida, 
and Gonospa, are confined to the New World. Some few new genera, mostly containing 
_ single species, have been required for the reception of the Central-American represen- 
tatives of this group; one of these (Lelegeis) is remarkable for the great dilatation 
of the first joint of the anterior tarsi; another (Paniasis) has the first joint of the 
two front pairs of tarsi similarly dilated. In Laporte and Brullé’s monograph of the 
** Diaperide ” (Ann. des Sciences Naturelles, xxiii. pp. 325-410) only a single species 
(Platydema fuliginosum) is noticed from our country. Subsequent writers, Mots- 
choulsky (Bull. Moscou, xlvi. part 1, pp. 466-482), and Chevrolat (Petites Nouv. Ent. 
ii. pp. 170-243, and Comptes Rendus de la Soc. Ent. Belg. xxi. pp. xcvii—clii) have, 
however, described or briefly diagnosed very many from Central America. These 
authors, in describing the Diaperide of their own and other collections, scarcely refer 
to previous writers on the subject, the result being, in numerous cases, merely to add 
to the synonymy, many of the species described by them as new being previously known. 
It is perhaps to be regretted that Chevrolat thought fit to publish the greater part of 
his descriptions in such a periodical as ‘ Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques,’ or, indeed, 
that he published such brief descriptions at all. 
To increase the difficulty of satisfactorily determining these insects, many of the 
species have been described upon very insufficient material, upon single and often 
mutilated or immature specimens. Many of Chevrolat’s species (and Motschoulsky’s 
also) are quite impossible to recognize without seeing the types; fortunately for our 
purpose a good many of these are contained in the collections of M. Sallé and Mr. F. 
Bates, and I have in consequence been able to satisfactorily identify the majority of the 
described Central-American species. Many of the opaque species of Platydema have © 
the upper surface clothed with a sort of velvety pile, which more or less obscures the 
sculpture; all these seem to grease very readily, and require to be thoroughly cleaned 
before they can be critically examined. 
