216 J. L. LECONTE, M. D. 



Clavicorn ; witliont boiiip: entirely similar to those of any partieular 

 family. IJy a slit^ht mollification in any direction, it mij:ht assume tlie 

 forms observed in that very comprehensive series. The thighs are not 

 remarkable; the tibise are quite unlike any Clavicorn known to me, 

 and are feebly suggestive of Xothoptix (rarabidfc), and Sitiptulcnna, 

 (Elateridae) : the tarsi are Clavicorn more than anything else. 



The middle tibiae by a wonderful anomaly, otherwise unknown in 

 Coleoptera, resemble the front tihijie, having like them an external 

 digitatiou and two terminal spurs; the tarsi are like the front pair, 

 but longer. 



The hind coxa3 are immensely large and prominent, rather Clavi- 

 corn in appearance, but without the concavity on the outer side, which 

 is seen in that series, when the coxas are prominent; they may. per- 

 haps, be better com])ared with the Khynchophorous form, though 

 greatly developed and exaggerated ; but the position of the coxal 

 cavities, mainly in the firet ventral segment, is a character altogether 

 peculiar and unknown elsewhere. The trochanter greatly resembles 

 that of Xerrophorus, of the Clavicorn series, and the thigh though 

 somewhat peculiar, may be viewed as pertaining to that type. The 

 tibiae however, by a most curious synthesis, are altogether Khyncho- 

 phorous : the form and position of the terminal surface, which is a 

 reniform corbel, is not unknown in other fossorial genera of normal 

 Coleoptera, but the absence of terminal spurs, and the presence of a 

 small fixed spine can be seen only in Rhynchophora. It is also note- 

 worthy, that while the surface of the corbels in normal Coleoptera is 

 always glabrous, and in Rhynchophora sometimes glabrous, and some- 

 times scaly, but never pubescent, this surface in II//porej)Jiii/KK is 

 covered with a dense brush of tine long hair. The tarsi are similar 

 to those of the other legs. 



From the analysis of the characters given above, it is apparent that 

 the thesis already advanced by Spinola* is correct ; and thiit IJ/yj>o- 

 cepfui/its must be excluded i'rom all other families of Coleoptera. 

 I propose to go farther than this, and to maintain the view that it 

 is still more isolated, and represents a fragment of a very old fauna, 

 of which as I have already endeavored to show, Trictenofoma, Cnpes 

 and Rhi/sodes ■}" are remnants, to which also the Brenthidae, though 

 numerous and perhaps greatly modified in recent geologic times, 

 might be added. 



* Spinoln, flp?«< VVestwood, Aro. Nat. I., 111. Erichson, Bericht, 1843, p. 30: 

 quoted by Tlionison, Fiiin. Cerainb., 2(51, I cannot verify this citation. 



f Leconte, Notes on the Rhysodidse of the United Stales, Tr. Am. Ent. Soc, 

 1875, p. 1G2, sqq. 



