162 REVISION OP THE GENUS PAROPSIS, 



ing into dark piceous, but even in the darkest examples shading 

 off into dark colours without sharply defined lines of separation. 

 I have the good fortune to possess the types of some of Chapuis' 

 species, and examples named by that author of other species, as 

 well as a series of specimens named by Mr. Masters after careful 

 comparison with Marsham's types. Of several other species I 

 have examples taken in the exact localities specified by their 

 authors, which enable tolerably confident identification even 

 where the description without such assistance is of too loose a 

 character. 



Most of the species of this group have smooth pustules or 

 verrucse on their elytra, and in many of them these quasi-tubercles 

 form a pattern. Where this is the case I find the nature of the 

 pattern extremely constant and a valuable specific character. It 

 must be noted, however, that the colours of the pattern are 

 variable, the quasi-tubercles forming it being usually of lighter 

 tone than the ground colour and therefore being very conspicuous, 

 but in some examples the tubercles are of the same colour as the 

 derm, and in that case (being very slightly elevated) need looking 

 for. The quasi-tubercles that I find to be, in the species having 

 a pattern, constant (specifically) in size and position are four, viz., 

 on each elytron one just within and below the humeral callus, and 

 one on the disc behind the middle. For the sake of convenience I 

 have called these faintly elevated quasi-tubercles, in the following 

 tabulation and descriptions, the subhumeral and postmedian 

 blotches. 



In the Journal of Entomology for Dec. 1864, Mr. J. S. Baly 

 published the first part of a study of the species of Paropsis in 

 his collection, in which he dealt with those that would fall into 

 my Groups i. and ii., of which he described 12 as new and re- 

 described 8. His descriptions are good ones, and there is not 

 much difficulty in identifying the insects on which they were 

 founded. He, however, relies largely on the characters of the 

 oedeayus, an internal sexual organ which in most specimens can 

 only be examined by dissection, for determination of species; and 

 therefore his diagnosis can be used thoroughly only when 



