Mr. A. White on Telocera Wollastoni. 353 



one- third from the base, whence it narrows pretty uniformly to 

 an acute tip. Its base is very deeply notched with lobes nearly 

 parallel to the petiole, and parallel-sided. 



A. pubens has roundish, or more usually oval petioles with a 

 large hole, which is usually also oval, in their centre ; five of the 

 angles reduced to rather prominent ribs ; the two upper ones, 

 which are only slightly more conspicuous, have a very broad 

 shallow furrow between them. The leaf is deeply cordate-ovate, 

 with its broadest part near the base, whence it narrows, with 

 much uniformity of curve, to the bluntish tip. Its base is 

 less deeply notched than that of A, minus) and its lobes are 

 rounded. 



XXXVIII. — Spicilegia Entomologica. I. — Description of 

 Telocera Wollastoni, an apparently unrecorded species of 

 Longicorn Beetle from Australia. By Adam White, Assistant, 

 Zool. Dept. Brit. Mus. 



There is no part of the external structure of an insect more 

 variable in different genera than the antennae. Look at the 

 Neuroptera for example. Take the short, few-jointed antennse 

 of those great-eyed Dragon-flies, with their bristle-ending last 

 joint, and compare them with the long, many-jointed antennae 

 of an Ascalaphus, with the terminal joints expanded into a knob, 

 so that Scopoli, whose writings White of Selborne often studied 

 and quoted, looking to that character alone, described one of 

 these strange Neuroptera as a butterfly. 



Look, again, at Beetles; compare the filiform antennae of a 

 Tiger-beetle with the many-plated antennae of a male Cock- 

 chafer, or with the strangely distorted antenna of a male Meloe 

 or Cerocoma, or the wondrously expanded joint of a Paussus, — 

 and how truly marvellous must be the diversity of uses and pur- 

 poses for which these antennae were made ! The uses of the an- 

 tennae would form a magnificent subject of research ; and the 

 results, if recorded by an able pen, would make one of the 

 finest, the most attractive, and the most interesting of books, 

 particularly if illustrated with enlarged and accurate drawings. 



But, to restrict oneself to Longicorn Beetles, the antennae 

 in this great group must always afford to the systematist the 

 most easily detected zoological characters. Nowhere, except in a 

 few Anthribida, which resemble Longicorn s at first sight, are 

 there longer antennae than those of the males of some of the 

 genera of this group ; take, for example, the Acanthocinus adilis, 

 or Macronemus. And yet you will find Longicorns with very 

 abbreviated antennae ; and in numerous sets, such as Clyti and 



