TWO NEW SPECIES OF BEETLE. 25 



nent between the thorax and elytra, contains several remark- 

 able forms ;* one of the most singular of these is a very flat 

 African genus first characterized by Mr. MacLeay in the ap- 

 pendix to his celebrated f Horae Entomological,' part I. p. 151, 

 and there named Platygenia. The only species known at the 

 time of the establishment of the genus (PI. zairica,) seems to 

 be the insect described shortly before at great length by Af- 

 zelius, in the appendix to the third part of Schonherr's ' Syno- 

 nymia Insectorum,' p. 38, (Trichius barbatus,) an insect which 

 Mr. MacLeay himself, in his memoir on the Cetoniidte of 

 Africa, says certainly belongs to the sub-genus. 



M. M. Gory and Percheron,in their monograph of the family 

 Cetoniidce, have figured an insect, which, from the emargination 

 of the clypeus, and the want of the tufts of hair on the inside 

 of the intermediate and posterior pair of legs, may possibly 

 be the female of the Platygenia barbata, though it is impos- 

 sible, from the rarity of specimens in collections, to determine 

 this point by the mere inspection of a figure. The figure in 

 Guerin's 'Iconographie,' (pi. 26, fig. 6,) seems to be copied 

 from that given in M.M. Gory and Percheron's beautiful work. 

 Mr. Samouelle found two specimens of a new species in a 

 collection brought from the Gambia ; he has named it after 

 the distinguished author of the genus, whose works on the 

 Annulosa have done so much to promote and facilitate the 

 study of his favourite science. Both of these specimens are 

 in the collection of the British Museum, and seem to be fe- 

 males, both wanting the strong spine at the base of the claws. 

 16 



Platygenia MacLeaii, Samouelle. 



Platygenia MacLeaii, Samouelle MSS., {Fig. 16). 



P. picea, elytris subferrugineis, sutura subelevata, tibiis sublaevibus, an- 

 ticis externe distincte tridentatis. Long. lin. 13, lat. max. elytr. lin. 7. — 

 Hob. Gambia. Mus. Brit. 



1 Most of them in the larva state are found in rotten wood, upon which 

 Vol. III.— No. 25. n. s. c 



