i!>oo.] 255 



strenutts, Patrobus septentrionis and excavatus and axsimilis, Trechus ohtnsus, Bern- 

 bidium tihiale, Agabus bipttstulalus, Hydroporus griseostriatus, Cercyon Jlavipes, 

 Tachinus rufipes, Quedius fuliginosus, Philonthus mneus and marginatus and fiine- 

 iarius, Oikius meJanocephalus, Lesteva sharp! , Dermestes lardariun, Aphodius 

 lapponum, Cryptohypnus riparius, Otiorhynchus blandus, Tropiphorus obtusus, 

 Chrysomela staphylea. 



These species are all found in Scotland, and the specimens seem 

 to be quite similar to Scotch individuals. Nearly all the examples 

 were found under stones. 



Cambridge : October IMh, 1900. 



A SPECIES OF SCAPTOCORIS, Pertt, FOUND AT THE ROOTS OF 



SUGAR-CANE. 



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



My friend Senor Don Juan Rodriguez has recently sent Mr. 

 Godman many specimens of a species of this remarkable American 

 genus from his estate in (iruatemala, a locality well known to me, and 

 where I have had the pleasure of collecting in his company. They 

 are labelled as having been found underground, at the roots of sugar 

 cane and other plants. The genus is an interesting addition to the 

 Central-American fauna, nothing being known of it from that region 

 when Mr. Distant concluded his enumeration of the Cydnides in the 

 " Biologia Centrali-Americana " in 1889. The Guatemalan insect 

 cannot be certainly referred to either 8. castaneus, Perty, the type of 

 the genus, or to S. terginus, Schiodte, both from Brazil (which were 

 re-described by Signoret from specimens from Venezuela and Cuba 

 respectively, and perhaps not correctly identified), and I have therefore 

 ventured to name it.* The Scaptocoris in question, moreover, differs 

 from the two species standing under the name 8. castaneus, Perty, in 

 the British Museum, one of them, from South America, being, no 

 doubt, correctly named. It is therefore certain that there are several 

 nearly allied Tropical American forms. Perty's diagnosis of the genus 

 is so complete that there is little to add, beyond calling attention to 

 the complete adaptability of the general structure of the insect for 

 burrowing purposes, a fact not noted by him or by Signoret, and if 

 the Guatemalan species really attacks the roots of the sugar cane, it 

 may do a great deal of mischief. Signoret states that the hind legs 

 have very small tarsi, but this is a mistake, no trace of them being 



* The more recently described S. minor, Berg [An. Mus. Montev., i, p. 14 (189-1)], also from 

 Brazil, is a much smaller insect. 



