178 Mr. J. Nietner on new Ceylon Coleoptera. 



this reason, entitled to be considered before all others; and 

 looking upon it in this light, that is, as the essence of all former 

 observations, I shall for the present occupy myself with it alone. 

 According to this description, as mentioned above, the insects 

 which it regards have the elytra soldered together and are destitute 

 of wings. This being the case, I was startled to find that out of 

 the thirteen species d( scribed below, nine or ten which I exa- 

 mined in this respect had neither the elytra soldered nor were 

 they destitute of wings; — on the contrary ^ the elytra were uncon- 

 nected in the middle, and the wings were nearly double the size of 

 the whole insect, and could not possibly be overlooked. I would will- 

 ingly have supposed that the 100 species of this family contained 

 in European collections, and principally derived from Europe 

 and North America, agreed with Lacordaire's description, and 

 that the Ceylon species were exceptions to the general rule, had 

 not Westwood's observations alluded to above corroborated my 

 own, thus rendering me suspicious of some unaccountable mis- 

 take or oversight somewhere or other. That this mistake cannot 

 consist in a slip of the pen or a misprint in the ^Genres des Co- 

 leopt.' quoted above, is clear from the obvious care which has 

 in every respect been bestowed upon this work, and from the 

 same remarks being repeated in different words. Where this 

 mistake is, and upon what grounds it rests, it would, under my 

 circumstances, be useless to attempt to unravel. However, it 

 appears certain to me that some more detailed and positive re- 

 marks on the subject cannot be superfluous, and must be new 

 to some entomologists. Placing the fullest confidence, as every 

 one would do without hesitation, in the infallibility of the de- 

 scription of the Belgian author, it was not likely that I should 

 have looked for wings at all in the Scydmsenidse (a family to 

 which I have not until lately paid much attention) had 1 not 

 been struck by seeing the elytra of my >S^. alatus open, when 

 handling it with a fine painter's brush in a drop of water, it 

 being at the time quite out of the question that the opening 

 could have been effected by pressure. On opening the elytra 

 fully, 1 had no difficulty in discovering the wings. Rendered 

 extremely curious by this discovery — diametrically opposed to 

 the distinct statement of so great an authority as the one just 

 alluded to — I now examined other species, and all with the same 

 result, most of them opening the elytra without my assistance, 

 in the same manner as the S, alatus ; and I have not the slightest 

 doubt that when a sufficient number of specimens enables me to 

 examine the rest, it will still be with the same result. That 

 these insects use their organs of flight, may be gathered from 

 the following : — At a former period I lived in a house situated 

 on a small eminence, and overlooking extensive groves of cocoa- 



