Mr. J. Nietner oh new Ceylon Coleoptera. 273 



the present species it becomes still more closely and more 

 strikingly allied to certain Dyticidse [Hydaticm) than has hitherto 

 been the case. 



The prevailing colour of the insect is deep chestnut, lighter 

 along the sides of the thorax ; the elytra darker. The latter are 

 variegated with two transverse belts of irregular outline, and 

 interrupted in the middle near the suture ; one of these is sub- 

 humeral, the other subapical ; they are of yellowish colour, and 

 reach from the first to the eighth stria, a small discoloured spot 

 being projected from the subhumeral belt on either side to the 

 ninth stria, and a discoloured prolongation of the other filling 

 the apical angles, with the exception of a dark spot ; the margin 

 is also of a more or less brownish colour. The legs are dark 

 yellowish, with chestnut tarsi; the mouth and antennae are 

 brown, the latter light at the base. These colours vary alto- 

 gether from lighter to darker. The head is of the typical sculp- 

 ture; it has two impressions at the posterior margin of the 

 clypeus, and is finely sulcated between the eyes. The antennae 

 are strong, stifle, and short, reaching hardly beyond the base of 

 the thorax ; joint 1 is of middling size ; 2, short ; 3, 4 are sub- 

 equal; 5, rather shorter; 6-11 still shorter, subequal; joints 

 3-11 are strongly compressed and pubescent, but only on the nar- 

 row side. The labrum is deeply subtriangularly emarginated in 

 front, and increases in breadth towards its base. The maxillae 

 are furnished with a thick brush at the apex, having much of the 

 rough appearance of a minute bundle of coir. The inner edge of 

 the lobes of the mentum is very broadly cut away. The ligula 

 appears, as I understand it to be from Lacordaire^s description, 

 coriaceous, of middling size, of the shape of an oblong square, 

 depressed in front and at the sides, set in its membranous and 

 ample paraglossae as in a broad frame; the whole obliquely 

 truncated at the anterior angles, and ciliated along the anterior 

 margin. The palpi can hardly be said to be truncated at the 

 apex of the fourth joint, finishing ofi" rather like an acorn. The 

 remaining parts of the mouth and the head in general are of 

 typical construction. The thorax is strongly transverse, sub- 

 quadrate at the base, and firmly applied to the elytra, but not 

 quite as large. The latter being also subquadrate at the base, 

 the place of the juncture of these two parts of the body presents, 

 upon close inspection, rather a peculiar appearance. The thorax 

 is gently narrowed towards the apex ; the anterior part is deeply 

 emarginated in the shape of a crescent, the posterior part slightly 

 so at the middle, the emargination being long, shallow, and 

 nearly rectangular, its external corners fitting into two deep 

 notches in the base of the elytra. The anterior angles are rather 

 acuminated. The back is elevated and divided by a longitudinal 



Ann. ^ Mag, N. Hist, Ser. 2. Vol xx. 18 



