CORYNOMALUS. 115 



Fam. END0MYCHID2E. 



The passage to the Endomychidse from the Erotylidae through Homoeotelus seems 

 natural enough, and some species of Brachysphenus, such as B. festivus, have quite the 

 facies of the present group. The family, however, is concisely separated by the tarsi 

 having one less apparent joint ; while certain genera which have been admitted, part 

 of which form the " Endomychidse adsciti" of Gerstacker, will here be treated as 

 equally aberrant from both families, the foot-structure in these showing very important 

 differences. 



The genera of Endom ychidse inhabiting the New World are more differentiated from 

 those of the East than is the case in the Erotylidae. We altogether miss here any 

 representative of the JEumorphi or Spathomeles, while Corynomalus is equally the 

 special form of Tropical America, and the former accordingly form a subfamily 

 unrepresented in our fauna. 



The family is somewhat more specialized, but on the other hand its representatives 

 are far inferior in number, both in genera and species, to the Erotylidae. The Palae- 

 arctic and Nearctic zones and low Southern latitudes possess few and feeble forms ; as 

 a group, they are a tropical development of a peculiar type that has never been dominant, 

 dependent on special circumstances for their existence, and therefore rare in nature. 



The learned treatise by Dr. A. Gerstacker in Wiegmann's Archiv fur Naturg. xxiiL 

 (1857) was followed by a more complete Monograph in 1858, which includes a most 

 valuable contribution to insect-anatomy. 



Subfam. CORYNOMALIDES. 



CORYNOMALUS. 



Corynomalus, Erichson, Archiv fur Naturg. xiii. p. 181 (1847) and in Schomburgk's Reise. Guian. 



iii. p. 579 ; Guerin, Arch. ent. i. p. 263 ; Gerstacker, Monogr. Endom. p. 143 ; Gorham, Endom. 



Recit. p. 14; Chapuis, Gen. des Col. xii. p. 81. 

 Amphix, Castelnau, Hist. Nat. Ins. Col. ii. p. 522. 



About thirty species of this genus are known to me, chiefly from Tropical South 

 America. A few pass the Isthmus of Panama northwards, but they are not common 

 in our region ; and but one species, and that an abnormal one, is found in Mexico,. 

 where, however, it is very common. 



The larva of Corynomalus discoideus has been described by the late Dr. Chapuis- 

 (Gen. des Col. xii. p. 98). 



Q*2 



