220 HETEROMERA. 
FORMICOMUS. 
Formicomus, La Ferté, Monogr. Anthic. p. 70 (1848) ; Lacordaire, Gen. Col. v. p. 591. 
Anthelephilus (Hope), La Ferté, loc. cit. p. 65. 
Formicilla, Leconte, Ann. Lyc. New York, v. p. 152 (1852). 
Numerous species of this widely-distributed genus have been described. The 
American representatives have the femora less strongly clavate than in the Old-World 
forms. One species is now recorded from our region, this making the fourth known 
from the American continent. 
1. Formicomus gracilipes. (Tab. X. fig. 1.) 
Bright reddish- or flavo-testaceous, very smooth and shining; the elytra with a broad transverse fascia at or 
just before the middle (usually widening outwardly and not reaching the suture, sometimes extending 
completely across, in rare examples almost obsolete), a broad transverse anteapical fascia extending 
forwards at the suture (occasionally confluent with the median band, and sometimes occupying the whole 
of the apical portion), and in rare examples the shoulders or the base, narrowly, piceous ; the upper surface 
clothed with scattered exceedingly long, yellowish, erect, bristly hairs, those on the elytra serially arranged. 
Head large and elongate, rounded at the sides behind, with a few widely scattered fine setiferous punctures ; 
eyes black, coarsely granulated, rather large, moderately prominent; antenne testaceous, elongate, slender 
at the base and thickening outwardly, the apical three joints distinctly stouter than the preceding ; pro- 
thorax nearly twice as long as broad, very much narrower than the head, the sides much rounded before 
and very strongly but not abruptly constricted behind the middle, the anterior portion transversely convex, 
the posterior portion dilated laterally at the base, the flanks grooved in the narrowest part, the neck very 
sharply defined, the surface with a few fine setiferous punctures ; elytra subovate, subtruncate at the base 
and rounded at the apex, flattened on the disc (or with a very shallow transverse depression) below the 
base, the humeri obtuse but distinct, the surface with a few widely scattered very fine punctures (in some 
specimens almost obsolete, in others more distinct); legs entirely testaceous, long and slender, the femora 
very feebly clavate; wings fully developed or merely rudimentary ; fifth ventral segment truncate in 
the male. 
Length 24-22 millim. (3 9.) 
Hab. Mexico, Cordova (Sallé), Vera Cruz (Hoge); GuatemMaLa, Champerico, Paso 
Antonio (Champion). 
Found in abundance by myself on the sea-shore at Champerico on the Pacific coast 
and by Herr Hoge at Vera Cruz on the Atlantic coast, and also occurring inland. 
F, gracilipes is very closely allied to the North-American F. scitulus, Lec., a specimen 
of which from Florida has been communicated by M. Sallé; but differs from it in the 
more prominent humeri and less ovate elytra and in the longer legs and antenne. 
F’, leporinus, La Ferté, from Brazil, the type of which I have examined, is also an allied 
form, but differs from both these in its longer thorax and in the coloration of the elytra. 
F. mundus, Lec., is stated to have a large and distinct post-humeral depression and the 
thorax tripunctate at the base. In most of the Vera Cruz specimens the wings are 
rudimentary, but others from the same locality have fully developed wings as in all the 
Guatemalan examples and in the one from Cordova. The mesosternum (as noted by 
La Ferté in his description of F. leporinus) is somewhat angularly extended on either 
