58 



Buprestides and Platers without the aid of Herbst's figures and 

 descriptions, which include numbers of them. The name of 

 Omalisus coccinatus Say, was given me by that gentleman, but 

 is has not yet been published by him. In the specimen of your 

 807 sent me and marked 3, 4, 4, I discovered, by the use of a 

 lens surrounded by a concave reflector, that it was tetramerous. 

 Still my specimen may exhibit that conformation, while yours 

 of the other sex may have the hand trimerous. I consider it 

 to belong to the genus Mycetophagus (vid. M. bicolor and 

 M. flavipes Fabr.), of which I have, no other examples than the 

 species you have sent me. You mistook the drift of my remark 

 on your 814. It was intended to remind you that in Elodes 



/ \> 



the labial palpi were forked. Having only a single specimen, 

 I was loth to sacrifice it by dissection, and have no other insect 

 allied to it. Your Rliipisera (for such I consider it) must be 

 a charming insect, and I hope you will find the male, with its 

 antennae of thirty-five joints. It differs from the Ptilinus 

 mystacinus, as figured by Drury, and is very distinct from 

 marginata Kirby. Latreille says (Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., 

 Vol. XXVIII, article Ptyocerus) that "Melasis picea of Pal. de 

 Beauvois is congeneric with M. mystacinus, the type of La- 

 treille's genus Rhipicera and Thunberg's Ptyocerus" I have 

 therefore extracted the description of the M. picea from 

 Beauvois's splendid work, and annex a sketch of his insect, 

 which cannot be confounded with yours. 



Your having incidentally mentioned Platycerus securidens, 

 reminds me that if I market! your insect of that name, it was 

 probably an error. I never saw the true P.'securidens Say, 

 till about a year since, when I received one from Mr. Leonard, 

 which agreed in size, etc., with Say's description. The mandi- 

 bles are very different from those of the other and larger 

 species, which I had hitherto supposed to be P. securidens. 

 This larger species appears to be the Lucanus (^Platyceruii) 

 piceus of Weber. Weber describes another North American 



