214 HETEROMERA. 
be treated satisfactorily as an extremely variable insect, and that the numerous varieties 
all represent one and the same species. ‘The three following are here noticed :— 
1. Upper surface bright bronzy cupreous, or (rarely) metallic purple; the thorax 
reddish brown or black. 
2. Upper surface less shining, duller bronze; the thorax reddish brown. 
3. Elytra marked (as in ZH. belti) with bright metallic green and purplish cupreous 
(often with golden and bluish reflections) stripes, regularly placed along the 
suture, but confluent and irregular outwardly. 
The most vividly coloured examples are from Chiriqui; mixed with these, as with 
the specimens from the other localities, are many in which the elytra are unicolorous, 
but often with traces at the margins or along the suture of metallic green tints. The 
species varies in length from 33-7 millim., and in breadth from 2-37 millimetres. The 
beautiful vivid colours of the elytra, as exhibited in this species, are evidently more or 
less evanescent, and cannot, unless supported by other characters, be regarded as of 
specific value. 
The type of this species, contained in Mr. F. Bates’s collection, is without abdomen 
and in a very mutilated condition; it is of a rather more vivid purple colour than any 
of our Central-American examples, and with only slight greenish reflections. 
Small examples closely resemble Gonospa phedonoides. 
8. Hapsida terebrans. (Tab. IX. fig. 26, ¢.) 
Closely allied to H. purpureo-micans, and differing as follows:—Shorter and broader in form; the elytra 
relatively shorter and more rounded at the sides, usually marked (as in var. 3 of H. purpureo-micans) 
with bright metallic green and purplish cupreous more or less evanescent stripes, regularly placed along 
the suture but confluent and irregular outwardly, the rows of impressions represented by rather coarse 
distantly placed punctures (which are most distinct on the posterior portion of the disc, and obsolete at 
the base, apex, and sides); in the male the horny sheath of the cedeagus encloses a second sheath, 
the latter being divided at the apex into two very long spine-like processes, near the middle of which 
on each side externally are placed three or four bristles; in the female the accessory sexual organs are 
formed externally as in H. purpureo-micans, and armed (as usual) on each side a little before the apex 
with a stout styliform process and a few short bristles; the rest as in H. purpureo-mucans. 
Length 3-44 millim. (¢ 2.) 
Hab. British Honpuras, Belize (Blancaneaus, coll. Ff. Bates); Guatemaa, Teleman, 
Chacoj (Champion); Nicaracua, Chontales (Janson); Panama, Volcan de Chiriqui 
(Champion). 
Many examples. Mixed with H. purpureo-micans, and found in many of the localities 
in company with it, specimens are occasionally to be met with of a more rounded and 
shorter form: these are coloured exactly as in var. 3 of that species, and, in spite of 
the apparent great dissimilarity in outline, seemed to me at first to represent another 
variety of that inconstant and variable insect. In connection, however, with the shorter 
and rounder form I find that the accessory sexual organs of the male differ greatly 
