Entomological Society. 357 



the third joint ; and of a Cimicideous insect from Sierra Leone 

 {ProbcBnops dromedarius, Wh.), presented to the British Museum 

 by the Rev. D. F. Morgan, and subsequently described in the ' Zoo- 

 logist.' 



Extract of a letter from Captain Boys to the Rev. F. W. Hope, 

 dated Almorah, April 27, 1842, containing notices of the habits of 

 various species of Indian insects. 



At Mhow (Malwa) he never collected Oryctes but in the de- 

 caying trunks of the wild date-tree {Phcenix farinifera^ Roxb.), 

 and constantly near its root. At Almorah, however, he found some 

 larvae, which he considered to be those of that genus, amongst the 

 oak bark used by the natives for tanning. The want of proper food 

 and moisture he considers to be the cause of the diminutive size of 

 many specimens. In the trunks of the date-trees he also found the 

 larvae of a large species of Calandra. In the high districts of 

 Mhow he found CoUiuris and Casnonia in profusion : the latter 

 also was found " common enough down below," but not the former. 

 He found carrion insects comparatively few : many species of Hister^ 

 and as far as his own experience of the plains went, one species of 

 Silpha, one of Oiceoptoma (neither very numerous), and Necrobia 

 and Clerus in abundance, were nearly the sum total. 



He also describes a species of the Heteromerous genus PlatynotuSj 

 which in its habits is a " true burying beetle," and a few of which 

 will sink a crow in the course of a few hours ; it simulates death 

 immediately it is touched, contracting its legs close to its abdomen. 

 Many beetles considered purely coprophagous feed upon dead ani- 

 mals, and one of these he noticed to be very select in its choice, 

 namely Onthophagus igneus, which he had never been able to take 

 except from the dead bodies of serpents. The only insects he had 

 observed in the nests of the white ants are Hegeter, Scarites, Sia- 

 gona, and some species of spiders. 



Paussus he never found there, but he has no doubt that it is the 

 case, as he is inclined to think that it ought to be placed either with 

 or near the Carabidce, principally because he had observed that se- 

 veral species possess the power of crepitating and discharging a va- 

 pour which has the same smell and properties as that discharged by 

 the Brachini, and that the joints of the tarsi, when the fresh insect 

 is examined, prove to be five in each leg, and though the first is very 

 minute, yet it is well defined. He had taken Paussus by sweeping 

 among high herbage, but most frequently by spreading out a sheet 

 with a lighted candle in the centre on a dark night. 



Continuation of a memoir containing descriptions of new species 

 of Coleoptera from Port Essington, in New Holland. By the Rev. 

 F. W. Hope. 



Heteromera. 

 Trigonotarsus*, Hope, nov. gen. 

 Forma fere orbicularis. CsbIo affinis Eschscholizii. Antennae 11- 

 articulatce^ extrorsiim magnitudine increscentes^ ternis ultimis 

 * r^tyavod frianguli(s, et ru^aog, tarsus. 



