COLEOPTERA 183 



Mauia Blackb. 

 (i) Mania satellcs Blackb. 



Majiia satelles Blackburn, Tr. Dublin Soc. in. 1885, p. 195. 



Hab. Maui ; Wailuku valley, where one specimen was taken by Blackburn. 

 I have not met with this species. 



Fam. PROTERHINIDAE. 



This remarkable family is peculiar to the Hawaiian islands, and all the species, of 

 which 122 are at present known, are assigned to the genus Protcrhinus. These species 

 exhibit so much diversity in structure that the extreme forms would appear to be 

 certainly generically distinct, but they are so connected by intermediate forms, that it is 

 inadvisable to attempt a further division of the genus until the species are more 

 thoroughly known. At present, owing to the great number of the species, the close 

 alliance between many of them, their variability, and the great sexual differences, the 

 mere separation of the species is attended with the greatest difficulty. The figures on 

 Plates I X. and X. will show to some extent the diversity in structure and appearance 

 exhibited by these insects, and the specimens figured have been chosen for this purpose, 

 rather than with a view to exhibiting the minute distinctions between closely allied 

 species — an almost hopeless task in dealing with insects so variable both in structure 

 and in superficial appearance. 



In the Cambridge Natural History in the classification of the Coleoptera Dr Sharp 

 leaves the Proterhinidae as well as the somewhat similar insects comprised in the 

 family Aglycyderidae unclassified. The former have much more the appearance of 

 Rhynchophora than the latter, since the beak is always distinct and definite in 

 Proterhinus, at least in the female sex. In the t however it is hardly more than a 

 simple prolongation of the head, and only very rarely does the rostral portion attain a 

 length greater than its width. The female beak on the other hand is in most cases 

 elongate, and on account of its shining surface and absence of squamosity extremely 

 definite. It is noteworthy that in a considerable number of species, which have the 

 rostrum in the ? below the average in development, the rostrum of the ? is above the 

 average, so that the sexual differentiation is less than usual, and I believe that these 

 species are the more primitive, and their resemblance to the members of the Aglycyde- 

 ridae is greater than that of the other forms. The Proterhinidae are however always 

 distinct from Aglycyderes by the definite rostrum of the ?, and by the structure of the 

 tarsi which are really four-jointed, the small division at the base of the claw-joint, being 

 a true joint and not a mere constriction as in Aglycyderes. With regard to the 



