THE 



ENTOMOLOGIST'S 

 MONTHLY MAGAZINE: 



VOLUME LV. 



[THIRD SERIES, VOL, V.] 



NOTES ON VARIOUS SPECIES OF THE GENUS CHALCHAS Blanch. 



(COLEOPTERA.) 



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



Tlie following notes have been made during a recent examination 

 of the British Museum material of this remarkable South American 

 genus of Malacodermata, about 100 examples in all. Eleven species 

 belonging to it were enumerated by Fairmaire in his second monograph 

 (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1849, pp. 1-22, pi. 7), and the males of eight of 

 them extremely well figured, one other having been described by 

 Erichson at about the same period. Since that time three species only 

 seem to have been added — C. sallei and ahnormis Fairm. (1878), and 

 C. fairmairei Bourg. (1900). The extraordinary sexual characters 

 were given at length by Fairmaire {I. c), but in the same author's 

 subse(juent paper (1878) the S and $ of C. sallei Avere wrongly 

 identified, and the same remark applies to Erichson's description of 

 C. turgidus. The species not represented in the Museum are C. sexpla- 

 giatiis ( 5 only known), Colombia, turgidus, Zuruma River, Guiana, 

 and fairmairei, Orinoco, The only recorded observation as to their 

 life-history is a statement by Salle that one of the species has been 

 found on potato-plants in Venezuela, Blanchard (1845) used the 

 generic name Chalchas (^Calchas being probably intended), Fairmaii'e 

 and later writers emending it to Chalcasl 



C. cyaneus Fairm. — Six males and four females, one of the former 

 having the elytra obscure nigro-violaceous. — Colombia or Venezuela. 



C. liaeatocollis Fairm. — Three males and four females, varying 

 in the development of the small black spots on the disc of the elytra. 



B 



