‘TOMASPIS. . 175 
and Serville themselves, are by no means always visible. -At best, the character given 
for Sphenorhina is a weak one, generically, and besides this, on examining a large 
number of species, I have found that it is often more or less feebly marked, and that 
intermediate examples occur, which make it practically impossible to draw a hard-and- 
fast line between Amyot and Serville’s genera: the facies of the various species, as well 
as their size, differs very considerably, some being elongate and parallel, and others 
short and ovate; the shape, however, is by no means associated with the carination and 
compression of the front, for the species most similar in appearance differ in this point *. 
Under all the circumstances, then, it seems best to include all our species, at all events 
provisionally, under Tomaspis. 
TOMASPIS. 
Tomaspis, Amyot et Serville, Hist. Nat. des Ins. Hémipt. p. 560 (1843). 
Triecphora, Amyot et Serville, loc. cit. p. 561. 
Monecphora, Amyot et Serville, loc. cit. p. 562. 
Sphenorhina, Amyot et Serville, loc. cit. p. 562. 
This genus, as here constituted, includes a large number of species, both from the 
Old and the New World. Amyot and Serville restricted Tomaspis to insects from 
South and Central America; but, for the reasons already given, I prefer to follow Stal 
in again extending it. The genus differs from Cercopis in having the ocelli usually 
very close together, and always nearer to one another than to the eyes, whereas in 
Cercopis they are equidistant from one another and from the eyes, or are closer to the 
eyes than to each other. 
The species described or enumerated below may be divided into four sections as 
- follows; but they are merely provisional, and it must be allowed that certain of the 
species are intermediate :— 
1. Larger species, 17-19 millim. in length, ovate or broad-oblong in shape; with the tegmina, 
as a rule, coloured in transverse bands, but sometimes spotted or unicolorous. 
2. Intermediate-sized species, 14-16 millim. in length, subparallel in shape; with the tegmina 
coloured in transverse bands. 
8. Smaller species, 5-12} millim. in length, ovate or oblong-ovate, rarely oblong in shape ; 
with the tegmina, as a rule, coloured in transverse bands, rarely spotted or unicolorous. 
4, Moderate-sized species, 7-12 or 13 millim. in length, elongate-oblong or parallel in shape ; 
with the tegmina coloured in more or less distinct longitudinal bands or markings, very 
rarely spotted +. 
In the Cercopine the apical portion of the tegmina is nearly always more or less 
* A glance at Tab. XI., where the metopidium of each species is separately figured, will at once make these 
points clear. 
t The only exception I know is the variety of 7. imperans described below, in which the red marginal: 
longitudinal band is broken into spots. 
