154 PHYTOPHAGA. 



in which the principal character is to be found in the concave emarginate or even 

 bilobed base of the prosternum. In the present genus this character is but slightly 

 expressed; and in one of the types before me (C. ferox) the base of the prosternum 

 might almost be called truncate, resembling thus the genus Bhabdophorus. 



The antenna seem also subject to variation, unless the two species described do not, 

 in reality, belong to the same genus. In G funesta these organs are very slender and 

 filiform ; but in G. ferox they are proportionally very short, scarcely extending to 

 beyond the first third of the elytra, and their terminal joints, instead of being filiform 

 and slender, are distinctly shortened and thicker than the rest of the joints. It must 

 be left to future studies to decide whether these differences are sufficient for the 

 erection of a separate genus or not, and if real advantages in the study of entomology 

 are obtained in drawing the lines so close as to necessitate continual erections of 

 genera already bewilderingly numerous. In addition to the shape of the prosternum 

 the present genus is otherwise distinguished by the transversely dilated thorax, which 

 in the allied genus is narrowed anteriorly. 



1. Corysthea violacea. (Tab. IX. fig. 3.) 



Oblong-ovate, black below ; base of the antennae and the legs fulvous ; above violaceous blue, shining ; thorax 

 minutely punctured ; elytra distinctly punctate-striate ; <5 posterior tibiae with a long spine. 



Length 2 lines. 



Head finely and distantly punctured at the vertex, closely and strongly at the clypeus, the latter not 

 separated from the front, its anterior margin straight ; labrum fulvous ; antennae two thirds the length of 

 the body, entirely fulvous, or the basal joints only of that colour ; thorax rather long, not more than 

 twice as broad, very moderately narrowed in front, sides rounded and entire, the angles not produced, 

 surface extremely closely and finely punctured ; scutellum ovate, broad ; elytra distinctly transversely 

 depressed below the base, closely punctate-striate, the punctuation, especially near the sides, much more 

 deeply impressed than that of the thorax, the impunctate smooth interstices becoming much broader at 

 the apex than at the rest of the surface ; legs rather robust, the posterior tibiae in the male armed with a 

 long spine. 



Eab. Guatemala, Zapote, Capetillo (Champion) . 



In the presence of a spine at the posterior tibiae of the male the species here described 

 agrees with G. ferox ; it is sufficiently distinct from the latter by its less robust shape, 

 the fine punctuation of its thorax, and the fulvous colour of the legs. Eight specimens 

 were obtained by Mr. Champion. 



Note.— The insect figured as Corysthea hoegii (Tab. VII. fig. 3) now proves to be a 

 variety of Coytiera fulvipes (antea, p. 126). 



CHALCOPHANA. 



Chalcophana, Chevr., d'Orbign. Diet. Hist. Nat. iii. 1843, p. 372. 

 Cychrea et Eriphyle, Baly, Journ. Entom. ii. p. 222. 



The species comprised in this genus seem to rival in point of numbers the genus 



