AMBATES. 155 
their contiguous anterior coxe, a character possessed by various true Barids. The 
genera Ambates and Pteracanthus are, in fact, extremely closely related to the 
** Péridinétides,” near which they must obviously be placed. These latter again are so 
nearly allied to the ‘“‘ Baridiides” that the best course seems to be to place them all 
under one group, Barina, which in Tropical America must be nearly or quite as 
numerous in species as the Cryptorrhynchina. 
Sect. AMBATIDES. 
Ambatides, Lacordaire. 
AMBATES. 
Embates, Chevrolat, Col. Mex., Cent. i. fase. i. no. 17 (1833) (sine descr.). 
Ambates, Schénherr, Gen. Cure. iii. p. 278 (1836), vii. 2, p. 150 (1843) ; Lacordaire, Gen. Col. vi. 
p- 513 ; Chevrolat, Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1877, p. 341. 
Drepanambates, Jekel, Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg. xxvi. p. 85 (1883). 
Ambates includes a large number of Tropical-American forms, some of them so like 
a Hilipus or Cholus as to be constantly mistaken for species of those genera*. The 
chief characters of the present genus (apart from the ascending mesothoracic epimera) 
are, the contiguous anterior coxe, the flattened or obsoletely sulcate anterior portion 
of the prosternum, the descending scrobes (which are placed along the lower outer 
edges of the rostrum), and the strongly dentate femora. The rostrum is stout and 
arcuate, and the antenne, except in those species with the rostrum more elongate than 
usual ¢ (=Drepanambates, Jekel), are inserted beyond the middle, at least in the 
male. ‘The tarsal claws, as noted by Lacordaire, are in some species subconnate at 
the base, and in others free. ‘The males have the first one or two ventral segments, 
and sometimes the fifth also, depressed or excavate down the middle; and in a few 
cases (A. melanops, A. ocellatus, A. cretifer, and A. polymorphus) the posterior tibie 
are ciliate within in this sex. ‘The species may be grouped thus: 
Prothorax feebly convex or subconical ; outer dorsal interstices of the elytra not 
costate. 
Prothorax and elytra with large white (or pale ochreous) patches on each 
side extending downward on to the under surface of the body . . . . Species 1. 
* Necedus, Pascoe, referred by its author to the “ Cholina,” belongs to the ‘“ Ambatides”; it is closely 
related to Ambates. 
+ A. leucopleura, A. belti, A. angustatus, A. albiventris, A. immaculatus. 
+ Ambates decemnotatus.—Very near A. cretifer, Pasc., but with the prothorax more convex, strongly 
rounded at the sides, densely punctate, and obsoletely carinate ; the ochreous patch on each side of the 
prothorax and the subhumeral patch on the elytra not extending so far downward, the latter triangular 
and disconnected from the metasternal spot, the other markings as in A. cretifer, that on the abdomen 
wanting, the rest of the elytral surface clothed with minute black scales ; ventral segments 1 and 2 broadly 
excavate down the centre, and all the tibiew densely ciliate with long blackish hairs from the middle to 
the apex, in the ¢ Length 9, breadth 32 millim.— Hab. Conomsra (coll. Fry, in Mus. Brit.), 
XX 2 
