28 Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar. 



vix longiores hand in totum ad ligulam adhserentes, rotundato- 

 truncatse. Palporum articuli ultimi (prsesertim labialium) 

 parum tumidi, ovales, ad apicem acuminati. Mandibulse breves 

 et arcuatse. Labrum subquadratum, antice parum rotunda- 

 tum. Caput antice parum depressum, postice vix retractatum. 

 Oculi prominentes. Antennae satis tenues, baud capite cum 

 thorace longiores ; articulus secundus cseteris brevior. Tborax 

 subquadratus, antice emarginatus, postice parum angustatus. 

 Elytra parum curta, subparallela, ad apicem sinuata, baud 

 granulose punctata. Pedes mediocres; tibise anteriores ex- 

 terne inermes : maribus, tarsorum anteriorum quatuor primi 

 articuli modice dilatati, squamulorum lineis duabus subtus 

 parati ; articuli triangulares ; tarsi intermedii minus dilatati. 

 Corpus parum depressum. 



It is with reluctance that I have introduced this new genus 

 for the insignificant species which follows ; but every attempt to 

 reconcile it with any genus yet established has failed. If I had 

 been restricted to place it in a known genus, I think I would have 

 given the preference to Harp alus proper, where it might have 

 taken its place among a crowd of other imperfectly examined 

 species ; but it has no tooth to the mentum, which the restricted 

 genus Harpalus has. The want of this tooth would carry us to 

 SelenophoruSj with which it has other affinities ; for it possesses 

 in a faint degree the deeper punctures on the alternate inter- 

 stices of the elytra, which are one of the distinguishing characters 

 of that genus : these punctures here, however, are very faint, 

 and want the impressive character of those in the true Selenophori 

 (although some of these, such as S. parallelus, Lee, have the 

 punctures scarcely more observable than here). But what seems 

 the most efi'ectual bar to its admission among the Selenophori is 

 the want of the Amaroid form which distinguishes them. It 

 has more of the form of a true Harpalus or Plati/metopus, or 

 rather something between them. It wants the granulose punc- 

 tured texture of the elytra which so readily distinguishes the 

 genus Hypolithus from its congeners, besides that the latter has 

 a tooth to the mentum. The only remaining genus with which 

 its affinities would allow me to place it is Platymetopus ; but in 

 it the ligula is long and salient, and, besides, it has invariably 

 the granulose punctuation of the elytra of the Hypolithi : this 

 species has nevertheless a good deal of the facies of Platymetopus^ 

 although the anterior part of the head is not so much depressed 

 as in that genus. 



1. S. Calabaricus, mihi. 



Modice curtus, nigro-piceus, satis nitidus, supra seneo-virescens ; 

 labro ferrugineo ; palpis, antennis pedibusque rufo-testaceis ; 



