TEIPLAX.— TEITOMA. 79 



This pretty little Triplax may be at once known from T. flavicollis and from any 

 other species of the genus by the metasternum alone of the underside being black. In 

 one or two examples from Cerro de Plumas the abdomen appears to be very dark, 

 almost black ; but as others from the same place do not differ from the type I think 

 this is due to discoloration. 



3. Triplax mesomelas. 



Brevior, oblongo-ovata, flava, elytris et metasterno nigris, antennarum clava fusca. Long. 3|-4 millim. 

 Var. metasterno medio rufo. 



Hab. British Hondukas, Belize {Blancaneaux) ; Panama, Bugaba {Champion). 



This species comes very close to T. championi, but is distinct. The following are 

 the points of difference : — It is on the average smaller, shorter, and more uniformly 

 ovate ; the puncturing of the prosternum and of the sides of the metasternum is much 

 less coarse and not so confluent ; the metasternum is very often red, but infuscate at 

 the sides and with black episterna; the hinder coxae seem always to be red (in 

 T. championi they are black) ; and the puncturing of the head and thorax is finer. 



4. Triplax rediviva. (T. redivivus, Tab. IV. fig. 19.) 



Oblonga, nitida, nigra, capite, prothorace, mesosterno, antennis pedibusque sanguineis. Long. 4 millim. 

 Hab. Guatemala, Quiche mountains 8000 feet (Champion). 



Head and thorax blood-red ; thickly and rather strongly punctured, the latter more 

 sparsely so than the head. Antennae entirely red, as are also the mesosternum and 

 leas. The elytra are deeply punctate-striate, the interstices smooth and not very flat. 

 Scutellum black. Underneath, the prosternum is punctured and somewhat rugose ; 

 the metasternum and abdomen are black, the former with scattered large punctures, 

 the latter distinctly but finely and closely punctured and very indistinctly pubescent. 



One specimen obtained by Mr. Champion in the pine-forest region. The only other 

 species of Triplax known to me that has wholly red antennae is the European T. lepida, 

 from which, inter alia, this differs by its coarser striation and punctuation. 



TRITOMA. 



Tritoma, Fabricius, Syst. Ent. p. 68 (1775) ; Mant. Ins. p. 44 (1787) ; Ent. Syst.i. p. 505 (1792) ; 



Panzer, Naturf. Stuck 24, p. 12, t. 1. fig. 17 (1789) ; Paykull, Faun. Suec. iii. p. 346 (1800) ; 



Gyllenhal, Ins. Suec. i. p. 208 (1808) ; Kedtenbacher, Faun. Austr. ed. iii. p. 408 (1872) ; 



Lacordaire, Monogr. Erotyl. p. 218 (1842) ; Thomson, Skand. Col. v. p. 296 (1863) ; Bedel, 



L'Abeille, v. p. 40 (1868). 

 Cyrtotriplax, Crotch, Ent. Monthly Mag. ix. p. 189 (1873) ; Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. 1873, p. 355. 



Tritoma, like Triplax, is essentially a Palsearctic and Nearctic genus, predominating 

 in the latter region. Recently Mr. G. Lewis has enumerated seventeen species from 



