174 MEMOIRS ON THE COLEOPTERA 



Group II. 

 Subgenus Palechus nov. 



While the general habitus of the body is almost exactly as in the 

 preceding group, the anterior claws and. claw-joint of the male 

 are of an absolutely different form; so radical is this peculiarity, 

 that I can see no other appropriate course than to suggest for 

 Dyscinetus Icevipunctatus Bates and dubius Oliv., a distinct sub- 

 genus. There are, however, a few other apparent structural 

 differences, such as the longer hind tarsi, these being always shorter 

 than the tibiae in Dyscinetus and fully as long as the tibiae or longer 

 here, also the much less convex male pygidium. Not having seen 

 either of the species just mentioned, I would prefer to regard the 

 following as the type of the subgenus: 



Body elongate-oval, only moderately convex, very shining and deep black, 

 the legs and entire under surface, excepting the abdomen, piceo- 

 rufous; head distinctly more than half as wide as the prothorax, 

 strongly but not densely punctate, sparsely and less strongly 

 toward base; clypeus trapezoidal, barely twice as wide as long, with 

 feebly arcuate oblique sides, broadly and subangularly sinuate 

 apex and rounded angles, smooth, with sparse distinct and irregu- 

 larly distributed punctures, the surface moderately declivous antero- 

 laterad; margins with very thick, moderately elevated, internally 

 sharply-edged beading, not different at apex; suture extremely fine, 

 entire; ligula very broadly truncate; prothorax three-fourths wider 

 than long, the sides feebly convergent from base to apex and evenly, 

 rather strongly arcuate; punctures not coarse but strong, deep and 

 very sparse throughout; scutellum triangular, perfectly smooth; 

 elytra two-fifths longer than wide, circularly rounded in about apical 

 two-fifths, the sides parallel and arcuate at the middle, distinctly 

 wider than the prothorax; punctures small, very shallow, annular, 

 broadly open behind, very close-set in the series bounding the four 

 flat costular intervals, and also in the subsutural series, elsewhere 

 sparsely scattered; pygidium very densely scabriculate and opaque, 

 with irregularly ramifying smooth areas in about apical half, not at 

 all bitumorose, the entire surface having extremely minute coarse, 

 sparse and erect shining hairs. Male with the anterior tarsi very 

 slender and filiform throughout, the last joint not at all swollen or 

 modified beneath, the claws small, the inner broadly forked nearly 

 to the middle; hind tarsi as long as the tibia?. Length (cf) 18.8 

 mm.; width 9.4 mm. Amazon Valley *histrio n. sp. 



Differs from dubius, from Cayenne, in its much flatter elytral 

 costules, these being in fact not at all different from the other 

 intervals in convexity; the minute pubescence of the pygidium 



