220 REVISION OF THE GENUS PAROPSIS, 



these well defined fovese are found in scarcely any species outside 

 this subgroup. The prothoracic fovefe become obsolete in a few 

 species, but in these (with one exception) there is no carination 

 of the suture, and this flatness of the suture I do not find else- 

 where except in one of the small subgroups (which I place second 

 in the group) already characterised by another distinctive feature, 

 and a few very small species which obviously belong to another 

 subgroup. The exception mentioned above is P. variabilis, Chp., 

 which seems to form a connecting link between' this subgroup 

 and those having the suture carinate behind, as it has no defined 

 prothoracic foveee and the suture feebly carinate behind (more 

 distinctly in some specimens than others), but it clearly belongs 

 to this subgroup rather than the later ones. 



The species remaining, after those already characterised have 

 been removed, fall fairly naturally into two subgroups, one of 

 them consisting of species somewhat variable in form and colour- 

 ing but in general not strongly convex and with a tendency to 

 distinct patterns on the elytra, — the colours being non-metallic 

 and not evanescent after death, — and the texture of the elytra 

 generally firm and not in the least transparent; the other con- 

 sisting of species usually more convex, with coloured markings 

 (absent in some species) metallic and evanescent after death, and 

 the texture of the elytra more fragile. Between these two sub- 

 groups it is not at all easy to specify good workable distinctions, 

 but I find in the species of the former one or more of the follow- 

 ing characters which are never present in the latter : — (a) the 

 humeral angle of the elytra (when the insect is viewed from the 

 side) not descending much below the hind angle of the prothorax; 

 (&) the lateral margin of the elytra (viewed from the side) con- 

 spicuously sinuate ; (c) the hind angles of the prothorax well 

 defined In the other subgroup the humeral angle of the eh'tr'a 

 (viewed from the side) is much below the hind angle of the 

 prothorax, so that the point at which the lateral margin of the 

 prothorax seems to meet the front margin of the elytra is not 

 more than (generally not so much as) twice as far from the front 

 angle of the prothorax as from the humeral angle of the elytra; 



