July, 1915.] 201 



any on the tibia. There is no false epipleuron, the true (pubescent) 

 epipleuron is elongate and conspicuous, and is limited externally by 

 the raised margin. The last ventral plate is set behind with very 

 peculiar truncate teeth in all the species, and this character appears 

 to be confined to the genns. In addition to the species mentioned 

 below there are two others from W. Siberia — bergrothi Sahib, and 

 niger Sahib. They are unknown to me, and it is somewhat doubtful 

 whether they really belong to Meghelophorns : parallelus Motsch. from 

 the Kirghiz steppes appears quite enigmatical ; from the brief descrip- 

 tion the genus is uncertain, and until specimens are received from the 

 same locality it must remain merely a name. 



The colour of the pronotum in Meghelophorns is generally metallic, 

 and M. Zaitzev has recently made use of the colour of this part for the 

 separation of a sub-genus that he has named Li helo-phorus (Annuaire 

 Mus. Zool. St. Petersbourg, XIII, p. 421, 1909). This character is 

 not a satisfactory one. In Helophorus (s. str.) there are several species 

 in which the colour of the pronotum is yellow without any metallic 

 appearance ; and in the genus Tr-ichelophorns the colour of the 

 pronotum is remarkably unstable ; in many specimens it is not 

 metallic, and in T. alternans this coloration is very variable, the 

 pronotum being usually metallic on the disc, while in other cases this 

 metallic appearance is nearly or quite absent. The other characters 

 assigned to Lihelophorns are the presence of intercalated punctures at 

 the base of the elytron, an asymmetric terminal joint of the palpus, 

 and unelevated elytral interstices. As all these chai-acters exist in the 

 genus Meghelophorns I think it probable that Lihelophorns will prove 

 to be a synonym thereof, though I am unacquainted with the two new 

 Tibetan species which Zaitzev proposed to include in this sub-genus. 



1. — Meghelophorns agnations, L. 



One of the largest species of the Helophorini, but varying in size 

 from 6^-7^ mm. in length. The stout maxillary palpi have the 

 terminal joint about as long as the ante-penultimate one. The head 

 is coarsely granulate, of an obscurely aeneovis or bronzed colour. The 

 thorax is dull, the median, sub-median, and sub-external grooves quite 

 definite and moderately deep, but the external groove is represented 

 only by a very fine channel, due indeed merely to the raising of the 

 lateral margin ; all the intervals are coai-sely sculptured in a granular 

 manner, and bear a little hair, which, almost completely absent on the 

 median, is distinct, though fine, on the sub-external interval near the 

 front. On the elytra the punctures of the series are moderately coarse. 



