of Heteropterous Insects. 



29 



characterized from the very broad Lead, and the scutellum 

 einarginate behind, in the middle. In the appendix to his 

 treatise, however, he substituted the name of Canopus for 

 that of Platycephala, on the authority of Griffith's Animal 

 Kingdom, Insects, (pi. 92, fig. 2) where a species of this sub- 

 genus is figured under the name of Canopus punctatus, of 

 Leach ; but as M. Lefebvre has more recently proved the incor- 

 rectness of this nomenclature, it would be proper to return to 

 M. Laporte's previous name, had it not been long previously 

 employed by Mergen, for a genus of Dipterous insects. Un- 

 der these circumstances I beg leave to propose for this broad- 

 headed division, the sub-generic name of Plataspis, a name 

 which I had long ago given to the entire genus, in a memoir 

 prepared upon it, for the Zoological Journal. 



Hahn subsequently published the Cimex globus in his work 

 on the Cimicidce, under the generic name of Globocoris, ac- 

 companied by a very inaccurate series of outline dissections. 

 Boisduval also figured another broad-headed species, in the 

 Voyage de l'Astrolabe, under the generic name of Brachy- 

 platys. Burmeister, on the other hand, in the second volume 

 of his Handbuch, restored Schrank's name, Tliyreocoris, to 

 the genus, as improperly applied by Leach; for which reason 

 I consider it will be most just to adopt Laporte's name, Cop- 

 tosoma. 



The last-named author has, however, erred, in giving the 

 entire or notched extremity of the scutellum, as the character 

 of the two sub-genera of which the genus is composed ; since 

 it is another unnoticed peculiarity in both sub-genera, that 

 in the males, the scutellum is deeply notched, whilst it is en- 

 tire in the females. In addition to the other characters given 

 by Laporte, it may be mentioned, that Plataspis differs from 

 Coptosoma in the form of the terminal ventral segment, which 

 is of a triangular form in both sexes ; and in the posterior 



Fig. 2 No. 1 repre- 

 sents Coptosoma glo- 

 om, male, magnified. 

 2. Anterior wing fold- 

 ed. 3. Ditto unfold- 

 ed. 4. Extremity of 

 scutellum and abdo- 

 men of the male. 5. 

 Ditto of female. 6. 

 Posterior tarsi of male. 



