1316.] 101 



4. — Ospliya tnelina, u. sp. 



Moderately elongate, shining, luteovis, the eyes black, thickly pubescent ; 

 closely, finely, the elytra a little more coarsely, punctate. Head nuTch narrower 

 than the prothorax, the eyes large ; antennae very long-, reaching to about the 

 apical third of the elytra, joint 2 short, not half the length of 3, 3-11 elongate. 

 Prothorax transverse, rounded and narrowly margined at the sides, narrowed in 

 fi ont, the hind angles obtuse, the latero-basal depressions very shallow. Elytra 

 moderately long, widened to the middle and arcuately narrowing thence to the 

 p. ex, transversely depressed below the base, the piinctures separate one from 

 another. Legs slender; basal joint of posterior tarsi longer than the others 

 united. Length 4t\, breadth 2 mm. ( ? ?j. 



Hah.: Tenasserim, Victoria Point (Doherty). 



One specimen. A small, unicolorous, luteous insect, with very 

 lonof antennae, a narrowly margined prothorax, and the elytral puntua- 

 tion a little less dense than in 0. lA'punctafa, etc. The American 

 0. lutea Horn, and paUida Champ, are somewhat similarly coloured 

 insects. The 11-jointed antennae separate 0. melina from Conopalpus. 



Myctbrina. 



In the '" Bioloo-ia," in 1889, Polypvla, Euryjms, and various other 

 Tropical American genera, were provisionally referred to Melandryidae. 

 A recent study of these insects, with the additional material in the 

 Museum from other parts of the world, has convinced me that they 

 are nearly related to Mycterus, which also, but as a separate group, 

 was included by me under the same family. The anteriorly elongated, 

 subrostrate head in certain European and IST. American species of 

 Mycterus, like that of various Cucujidae and Pythidae, is of little value 

 for taxonomic purposes, and the chief characters of the above mentioned 

 genera are : — the lobed or lamellate penultimate joint of the tarsi, the 

 basally dilated or appendiculate tarsal claws, the laterally immarginate 

 pi'othorax,* the confusedly punctured elytra, the open anterior coxal 

 cavities, the large, rounded, entire or feebly emarginate eyes, and the 

 short, often serrate, antennae. A common (^ character, too, present 

 in many of these insects, viz., a densely pubescent, oval or rounded, 

 pad or tuft of hairs, on the middle of the second ventral segment (so 

 well shown in Mycterus curculionnides ¥.), clearly indicates their 

 general affinity. The I'ythidae, s. str., have the penultimate tarsal 

 joint narrow and unlobed, the tarsal claws simple, and the second 

 ventral segment of ^J invariably without tuft or pad. Mycterus and 

 the genera here associated with it must therefore be placed in a separate 



^ Obsoletely margined in Pobjprio,. 



