TETKAGONOTES.— PHYSIMEKUS. 459 



4. Tetragonotes vittata. 



Tetragonotes vittata, Clark, Cat. of Halticidse, p. 59 (I860) 1 . 



Hab. Guatemala [coll. Baly); Nicakagua, Chontales (Janson) ; Panama, Vol can de 

 Chiriqui (Champion). — Brazil, Constancia 1 . 



Although some slight differences are to be found between the Nicaraguan specimens 

 and the description of Clark, as well as in a specimen labelled " type " in the collection 

 of Mr. Baly, they are not of sufficient importance to warrant the separation of the 

 Central- American specimens ; the thorax in the latter is strongly punctured, while the 

 reverse is the case in the specimen in Mr. Baly's collection. Clark gives piceous as the 

 colour of the antenna?, which agrees with the examples from Nicaragua ; in the indivi- 

 dual from Guatemala, the basal and the terminal joints are fulvous. The same author 

 speaks only of Brazil as the locality of the species, although he must have seen the 

 specimen from Guatemala if it was named by him, as the label implies. A single specimen, 

 which differs but slightly from the others, was obtained by Mr. Champion in Chiriqui. 



PHYSIMERUS. 



Physimerus, Clark, Cat. of Halticidse, p. 69 (1860). 



More than thirty species, all from different parts of Tropical America, are at 

 present placed in Physimerus ; the genus ranges as far north as Mexico. Physimerus is 

 far from satisfactorily established, as no constant structural characters for all the 

 species can with certainty be pointed out. I find, for example, that, although Clark 

 describes the posterior tibiae as being armed with a single spur, this character is not 

 peculiar to all the species described by him. I can detect two spurs in P. pulchellus 

 and P. vittatus, the types of which are before me. I am, moreover, unable to see in 

 all the species the row of comb-like teeth which frequently are placed below the 

 insertion of the posterior tarsi. Chapuis in his diagnoses of the " Monoplatinae " 

 separates Physimerus from other genera by the want of an elytral depression below 

 the base, yet Clark has described several species which possess this character in a 

 marked degree. Physimerus may be principally known by the filiform palpi, the 

 slender antennae, the appendiculate claws, and the pubescence which covers the elytra ; 

 the species are, for the most part, of small size. Only a single one has been recorded 

 up to the present time from Mexico. I may add here, to prevent further uncertainty, 

 that Herr von Harold, in speaking of the genus Physimerus (Coleopt. Hefte, xiii. p. 15), 

 and comparing it with Hypolampsis, Clark, makes the remark that Clark gives as one 

 of the distinguishing characters "the posterior tibiae of the last-named genus unarmed 

 or possessing no spur." Herr von Harold has, however, in this respect misunderstood 

 Clark, who says that the margination of the tibiae is unarmed ; there is, on the contrary, 

 a distinct spur placed at the apices of the posterior tibiae in Hypolampsis. 



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