ORTCTES. TRICHOGOMPnrS. 



281 



& Fed. Malay States, 1904, p. 18). It is probable that their 

 primitive habit is to feed in decaying vegetable refuse, like their 

 kin in general and that at first the eggs were only deposited in 

 standing trees when decay had begun, the adult beetles perhaps 

 resorting to the palm " cabbage" for the sake of its juices. They 

 are attracted by the oozing sap when leaves have been cut off and 

 the removal of old leaves with tlieir tough basal sheaths makes the 

 trees more vulnerable at that point. The best methods o£ coping 

 with tlie beetle are fully dealt with by Mr. Banks in the treatise 

 quoted above. 



Genus TRICHOGOMPHUS. 



Trichogomphus, Burm., Handb. Ent. v, 1S47, p. 219; Lacord., Gen. 

 Coleopt, iii, 1856, p. 4.32. 



Type, Geotrupes milo, F. (Philippine Is.). 



Range. The Oriental Region. 



Form moderately elongate and not very convex. Legs not 

 long, very spinose ; front tibia armed with three teeth, posterior 

 tibiae digitated at the end. Tarsi rather short, the basal joint in 

 the hind feet rather triangular. Clypeus tapering, bidentate at 

 the apex. Mandibles acute in front, strongly curved, entire at 

 the outer edge. Maxillaj short, broad, rounded at the end and 

 without teeth, but with a short dense fringe of fulvous hairs. 

 Mentum long, with a narrow ligular part. There is no free pro- 

 sternal process. The propygidium is without stridulating ridges, 

 and the pygidium is smooth and flat in both sexes and not in- 

 turned ventrally. 



d* . The head is armed with a simple laterally-compressed horn. 

 The prothorax is cut away in front and elevated behind into a 

 short massive protuberance. The legs are similar in both sexes. 



Key to ilie Species. 



1 (2) The greater part of the elytra strongly 



punctured martabani, Guer., p. 282. 



2 (1) The greater part of the elytra smooth 



and free from punctures. 



3 (4) Sides of the elytra irregularly or not 



at all punctured mongol, Arro\v, p. 283. 



4 (3) Sides of the elytra having two or 



three rows of punctures ucuticollis, Arrow, p. 284. 



Trichogomphus lunicollis, Burm., and bronchus, Jabl., are Malayan 

 species which have been inaccurately catalogued as Indian. 



