212 Arthur M. Lea : 



than any of the others, two first pairs five-jointed, the hind 

 pair four-jointed ; chiws small and simple. Body winged. 



A highly remarkable genus which I have been unable to place 

 in any family by any system of classification I haA^e looked into. 

 Thinking that the Rca . T. Blackburn, with his wider experience, 

 could help me, I sent a specimen to him for his opinion, sug- 

 gesting that it possibly came close to the liliyxodidat or 

 Colydiidae, and of it he wrote: — 



" One of the most remarkable insects I have seen for :i long 

 time past, and not falling naturally into any family known to 

 me. Possibly a new family, but this could not be determined 

 without knowing whether the other sex is heteromerous. If it 

 is I should say that this represents an uncharacterised family 

 (or rather subfamily). If, however (as is probable), this is a 

 male and the female is j^entamerous, I should place it in the 

 Rhysodidae without much hesitation, and consider it as pre- 

 senting a character in the tarsi which is by no means rare in 

 the L'lavicornis (e.g., in Cucujidat and Vryptophagidae). If, 

 however, it is (J of a species w^th ? tarsi pentamerous it would 

 be worthy of note that it is something of the nature of a 

 " missing link " between Colydiidae and Bhysodido''. You 

 will, of course, remember that these remarks are made without my 

 having examined the under surface. The antennae are certainly 

 as you note, Colydiiform, but I should give greater weight to 

 the structure of the tarsi, palpi and pronottim ; as far as I can see 

 beneath the head there are some points of analogy with the 

 Passandrides. I think the tarsi are impossible for a Culydiid.''' 



Since the sjDecimen mentioned was sent to him I have seen 

 many others (nearly a hundred), and all have the tarsi 5-5-4. 

 Such tarsi are at once suggestive of the Heteromtra, but they 

 appear to be quite negatived by the apparent entire absence of 

 palpi, whilst the antennae are certainly close to those of several 

 genera of Colydiidae, and, as with those, the missing eleventh 

 joint appears to be completely buried within the apex of the 

 tenth. The under surface of the head is not at all like any 

 of the Passandrides that I have examined. In the Rhysodidae, 

 although the palpi are apparently absent, the mentum is 

 strongly produced instead of emarginate in tiie middle, and 

 the front coxae are strongly separated instead of touching. 



