1S91.] 287 



of the middle of the anterior margin of the thorax. This process is most developed 

 in tlie cJ , in the ? it is sometimes very much reduced, the front margin being nearly 

 straight from one angle to the otlier. Specimens of this latter form were sent to 

 England some years ago by Mr. Masters, under the name of (?. noctis (Newman), 

 and one, somewhat intermediate, was included among the species communicated by 

 Mr. Olliff. What may be the O. noctis of Newman I have failed to ascertain, for 

 although Chaudoir alludes to the insufficient description, neither Mr. Waterhouse 

 nor myself can find any species under this name in Newman's works ; there is, how- 

 ever, a specimen labelled in Newman's handwriting, correctly placed among the 

 series of Q. titana, Thomson, in the British Museum collection, and this may have 

 led to some inexplicable mistake regarding it ; Chaudoir gave it, with doubt, as a 

 synonym of longipennis, Germ., but confused the matter by confounding this species 

 with the much larger and very different G. titana. 

 Queensland. 



11, Carleton Road, Tufnell Park, N. : 

 October, 1891. 



THE SEXUAL CHARACTERS IN THE PALPI OF MORDELLISTENA 

 ABDOMINALIS, FABR. 



BY G. C. CHAMPION, F.Z.S. 



The apical joint of the maxillary palpi of Mordellistena abdo- 

 minalis, Fabr., is exceedingly dissimilar in form in the two sexes, and 

 this important character seems to have been entirely overlooked by 

 authors. In the male (fig. 1) this joint is about three times as broad 

 as long, deeply excavate along the upper side within, and has the upper 

 and lower sides sub-parallel, the tip rounded, and the base sub-truncate; 

 it may be described as boat- (or hammer-) shaped. In the female 

 (fig. 2), it is oblong-ovate, rather narrow, with the apex 

 obtuse. The three apical joints of the maxillary palpi 

 may be easily seen without dissection, if the insect is 

 mounted in the " English fashion ;" and it seems inex- 

 i / plicable that these characters have not been noticed 



before, the species being one of the best known, and at the same time 

 the most interesting, of the genus Mordellistena. Mulsant, who 

 devotes three entire pages to his description of the species (Longi- 

 pedes, pp. 53 — 55), does not mention the form of the palpi. Emery, 

 though he proposed a sub-genus, MorJelJochroa, for M. ahdominalis 

 and another species (Essai Monogr. sur les Mordellides, p. 80), is 

 equally silent as regards the form of the palpi : he merely gives as 

 characters for his sub-genus, " Eperons des jambes de la 2<= pairs 

 presque nuls, a peine visibles ; prothorax d'un rouge vif, au moins 

 chez la ? ; elytres noires unicolores ;" nevertheless {op. cii.), in three 



