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REVISION OF THE AMYCTERIDES. 



Part ii. Talaurinus. 



By Eustace W. Ferguson, M.B., Ch.M. 



(Plates ii.-iii.) 



Talaurinus Macleay. 



Macleay, Trans. Ent. Soc. N. S. Wales, i., 216, 1865. 



(J. Form elongate or elliptical ovate, convex, clothing variable; 

 setigerous. Head convex, forehead convex, flattened or concave. 

 Rostrum, as a rule, rather narrower than head, may be separated 

 by a transverse sulcus, or continuous in same plane; internal 

 ridges typically long, convergent, may be short or obsolete. 

 Prothorax granulate or tuberculate, never strongly produced over 

 head. Elytra granulate, tuberculate, costate or foveate. Ventral 

 segments, as a rule, longer than in Psalidura; apical ventral 

 segment generally with a shallow excavation varying in degree 

 and shape. Apices of forceps occasionally visible at sides, as a rule 

 entirely concealed. 



$.More robust and elliptical in shape; beneath convex, apical 

 ventral segment not excavate. 



In the formation of this genus, for the inclusion of " a very 

 large number of species of all grades of transition between the 

 last genus, Psalidura, and the following one, Sclerorrhinus,^' 

 Macleay relied chiefly on the anal scissors-like appendages of 

 the male being absent, and on the formation of the rostrum, 

 "generally in this genus longer and rather narrower than the 

 head, with elevated sides, excavated middle, and two oblique 

 ridges nearly meeting behind." In his paper, however, Macleay 

 has placed, under Talaurinus, many species which do not fulfil 

 these requirements; at the same time, it must be admitted that, 

 on the whole, they form a natural group, though one for which it 

 seems almost impossible to formulate constant characters, 



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