476 Zoological Society : — 



works ; it is to the kindness of Dr. Gray, the keeper of the depart- 

 ment, that I am indebted for permission in laying these descriptions 

 before the Society. 



Tribe Longicornia. 



Family Prionid^. 

 The Prionidce consist of several marked subfamilies, in one of 

 which we would place Trictenotoma, G. R. Gray, one of the most 

 interesting of the genera of Beetles. This form, which appears to 

 me to be altogether Longicorn, is chiefly remarkable for its hetero- 

 merous tarsi, and for the ninth and tenth joints of its antennae being 

 serrated or produced at the end, almost as in the Lucanid<2. It is 

 one of those "aberrant" forms which naturalists call "annectent," 

 and which appear to partake of the characters of several groups, — 

 for instance, with the depressed form and velvety pilosity of many 

 ElateridcB, it has five joints to the two first pairs of legs, and four only 

 to the hind pair. Its head, jaws, and legs are essentially Longicorn, 

 the number of joints of the tarsi being not a necessary character of the 

 group; the tarsi oi Parandra are pentamerous, and Borx pentameray 

 an Australian insect described by Mr. Newman, has likewise five 

 joints to all the tarsi. The sternum of Trictenotoma is also peculiar, 

 that of the prothorax being received into a notch of the mesothorax, 

 while the sternum of the metathorax is capable of being firmly fixed by 

 ** dovetailing," as it were, into the hinder notch of the mesothorax; in 

 fact, this structure must enable the insect, if placed on its flat back, 

 to "right" itself, like those Beetles called "Skip-jacks" (Flateridce). 

 In some species, such as T. Childrenii (G. R. Gray), T. Templetonii 

 (Westw.), and T. Grayii (F. Smith), the sternum of the metathorax 

 bulges ; in T. cenea (Parry) that part is flattened, and the thorax is 

 curiously serrated on the lateral margin in front, and has a very pro- 

 jecting point on the side beyond the middle, and notched between 

 that point and the posterior angle, instead of being nearly straight 

 and simply angled as in the other three species. Of these Tricteno- 

 tomce, all the species described are in the Museum Collection ; the 

 T. Childrenii being the type female specimen from the Tenasserim 

 coast, described by Mr. G. R. Gray in one of the two insect volumes 

 of Griffith's edition of *Cuvier's Animal Kingdom' (pi. 5 and 5*). 

 The T. Templetonii of Westwood (Oriental Ent. tab. 23, f. 3) is a 

 native of Ceylon ; like the former, it has a yellowish-grey pile ; the 

 T, Grayii described by Mr. F. Smith in 1851 (Cat. Coleopt. Brit. 

 Mus. CucvjidcBf p. 18) is from Borneo, and has a purplish base beneath 

 the more tawny pile of the upper parts; in the Museum there are two 

 females, one from the collection of Mr. Alfred Wallace, who obtained 

 it at Sarawak. The T. cenea, the giant of the genus, is of a brassy 

 green, slightly pilose above. The Museum has lately obtained a 

 specimen from India ; the specimen was found by a soldier at 

 Dhargeeling. 



To the same family, and not very remote from the subfamily con- 

 taining Spondylis and its allies, belongs, in the opinion of Dr. Bur- 

 meister, Mr. Westwood, and Mr. Leconte, the very anomalous Hypo- 



