148 endomychim:. 



CREMNODES. 



Cremnodes, Gerstacker, Monogr. Endom. p. 412 (1858); Gorham, Endom. Recit. p. 27; Chapuis, 



Gen. des Col. xii. p. 129. 

 Catapotia, Thomson, Musee Scientifique, p. 13 (1860). 



The characters of this genus have been set forth at great length by Gerstacker ; but 

 although he has compared it with Bhymbus, and has admitted it among the Endomy- 

 chidse with better reason than Thomson had for placing it with the Nilionidae, it must 

 be confessed Cremnodes has no other affinity than general resemblance to Bhymbus, and 

 that it is only a very superficial one which disappears on examination. 



The antennae are 11-jointed and very thin; the thorax is declivous, and formed like 

 that of Chilocorus, without any trace of sulci ; the elytra are very convex and glabrous, 

 with very wide epipleurae, having thus a really Coccinellid form. 



The four-jointed tarsi, of which the joints are linear, the first three produced a little 

 beneath the base of those succeeding them, are not unlike those of Bhymbus. 



Thomson has taken very little notice of this important question, dismissing it with 

 two words — " tarsi subaequales " — and in his figure showing five joints to the two front 

 pairs, which is incorrect*. He concludes his description of Catapotia with these 

 remarkable words, which one would have thought would have led their author to 

 exclude the genus from his Monograph: — " A nilio seque capite, oculis, antennis, 

 palpis, mento, prothorace, prostemo, mesosterno, abdomine, coxis anticis, tarsisque 

 forma et dispositione maxime variat." The figure given (t. 2. f. 2) of the prosternum 

 and its adjuncts, though beautifully executed, is no less unfortunate, for it is wholly 

 incorrect and misleading: — the prosternum is smooth, and sutures or lines forming 

 any such rhomboidal middle structure are imaginary ; the front part is in fact not 

 carinate, and the intercoxal process is evenly widened and spathulate, and overlaps 

 the mesosternum, and is not received into a notch. Other details (as of the antennae) 

 are incorrect. 



Cremnodes, so far as known to me, includes at present only three species — one from 

 Brazil, one from Colombia (ef. Chapuis, loc. cit.), and the present one. 



l. Cremnodes tevissima. 



Catapotia Imvissima, Thomson, Musee Scient. p. 14, t. 2. f. 2, &c v t. 4. f. 5 \ 



Eab. Mexico \ Cordova (SallS) ; Guatemala (Champion) ; Nicaeagua, San Domingo 

 in Chontales (Janson) ; Panama, Bugaba, Volcan de Chiriqui, Boquete (Champion). — 

 Ecuador, Quito (coll. Gorham) ; Peru. 



This insect might readily be taken for one of the Coccinellidee ; the four-jointed tarsi 

 are not easily recognized as being such, and the antennae, though thicker and more 

 strongly clubbed than usual in that group, are not very different. The colour of the 



* Of. B. G.-A., Col. IV. pt. 1, p. 470. 



