154 [J«ir» 



ON SOME NEW SPECIES OF THE STAPHYLINID-GENUS 



PLANEUSTOMUS Duv. FEOM INDIA, 



WITH NOTES ON CEETAIN ALLIED FOEMS. 



BY GEOKGE C. CHAMPION', F.Z.S. 



About three years ago my second son, Capt. F. W. Champion, while 

 he was hving at Sarda, near the banks of the Ganges, about 100 miles 

 above Calcutta, sent me a large number of small Coleoptera from that 

 locality, most of which he had taken either " at light " or on the wing in 

 the evening. Amongst these beetles there were at least three (possibly 

 five) specie? of Planeustomus, all closely related to rare Palaearctic 

 forms, the genus having hithea'to contained but one eastern representative, 

 P. indicus Fauv., from Burma. The genera of this section of Oxytelini 

 have always interested me, as it has been my good fortune to capture 

 Acrognathus, in abundance, Deleaster, and two species of Planeiistomus, 

 in Surrey, all on the wing towards sunset ; and Oncopliorus piTazzolii 

 Epp., in numbers, in Southern Tunisia*, "at light." 



The following cori'ections in the synonymy of two known members 

 of this group require noticef : the generic name Oncophorus Eppelsheim 

 (1885) is preoccupied in Insecta (1874), and the name Oncogenys is here 

 substituted ; Compsochilus africanus Fairm. (1860) — a large shining black 

 form with red elytra not unlike the common Copropliilus striatulus F. 

 in general facies, — specimens of which, from Algeria, have been sent me 

 by M. Thery, has 5-jointed tarsi, and it should therefore be transferred 

 to Ac?'og)iafJius, the tarsi having three visible joints only in Flaneustonms. 

 The latter name is stated by Jacquelin -Duval to have priority over 

 Compsochilus Kraatz. 



Descriptions of the three new species from Bengal are given below. 



1. — Planeustomus longiceps, n. sp. 



Very elongate, narrow, linear ; shining, rufo-testaceous or testaceous, the 

 legs and elytra somewhat flavescent, the apices of the latter and of the abdomen 

 sometimes slightly infuscate, the eyes black; clothed with fine, scattered, 

 bristly, pallid hairs. Head rather long and convex, wider than the prothorax, 

 impressed with moderately coarse, scattered punctures, which are mostly placed 

 on the basal half and around the eyes, showing a tendency to form two short 

 anteriorly converging series in the middle behind ; eyes small, depressed, about 

 equalling the post-ocular space in length, as seen from above ; antennae wdth 

 joints 3-6 small, 4-6 transverse, 7-11 much stouter and wider, 7, 9, and 10 

 moderately, and 8 strongly, transverse, 8 shorter than 7, 11 oval. Pruthorax 



» Cf. Ent. Mo. Mag. 1, p. 77 (1914). 

 t They are not given in Bernhauer's and Schubert's Catalogue (1911). 



