14 [June, 



NEW LONGHCOEN COLEOPTEEA OF THE MONOHAMMIN^ GEOUP 

 FROM TROPICAL WEST AFRICA. 



BY H. W. BATES, F.R.S., &c. 



The collections sent home by recent travellers from tropical east 

 and west Africa, and particularly from the coast region between 

 Cameroons and Angola, have given indications of a surprising wealth 

 of species in the Coleopterous family Longicornia. A large number 

 of new genera and species have been published by Thomson, Yon 

 Harold, Quedenfeldt, and others, but countless others exist undescribed 

 in English collections, which it is the intention of the present paper 

 to reduce in some small degree. The Monoliammince group, of which 

 the well-known European MonoJiammus sutor and sartor may be taken 

 as types, seem to be very numerous and varied in these regions ; 

 whether they approach in number and variety the rich fauna of Indo- 

 Malaya cannot at present be guessed at, but it is certain they far 

 surpass tropical America, where only five genera are known, two only 

 of which occur in Brazil. It was one of the late Andrew Murray's 

 favourite zoo-geographical speculations to trace an intimate relation 

 between the faunas of West Africa and tropical America, whence he 

 inferred a former land connection between them ; but the Monoliam- 

 mince lend no countenance to such a hypothesis ; no genus at present 

 found being common to the two continents. 



TEICHOLAMIA, n. g. 

 General form of Ilonolimnmus, except that the elytra are rela- 

 tively shorter (especially in the ? ), and the antennae very little longer 

 than the body, even in the (^ , considerably shorter in the $ . The 

 pro- and meso-sternal processes are simple, the claws divaricate, the 

 cicatrice of the scape, though sharply defined and scabrous, only half 

 enclosed by a sharply-defined rim. The head has elevated, but not 

 very pointed, antennif erous tubercles, the front is short and quadrate ; 

 the lower lobe of the eyes large and broad; the palpi in the ,$ , both 

 maxillary and labial, have the terminal joints broadly truncate-ovate, 

 or campanuliform, in the $ slender and sub-acute. The thorax is 

 much broader than long, with lateral tubercles median, broad, and 

 spinose at their apices, the anterior (one) and posterior (two) trans- 

 verse sulci well-marked, the disc very uneven, with a broad central 

 depression. The elytra are elongate-oblong, convex, obtusely rounded 

 at the apex, sparsely punctulate and clothed (besides the fine compact 

 tomentum) with very long upright hairs. The antenna! joints 1 — 6 

 are ciliated beneath, and the scape clothed all round with long black 



