128 RUTELIX^. 



The mandible is short and rounded, concealed when in repose, 

 produced inlo several teeth at the tip, and bears a large, 

 strongly-ridged, molar surface at the base. The maxilla is short 

 and strong, generally bearing five sharp and nearly equal teeth, 

 one of them terminal, the others in pairs behind, and all parallel. 

 The palpi are 4-iointed, the last joint long. The mentum is 

 approximately quadrate, feebly bilobed in front, with short, 

 3-jointed palpi. 



The apical tooth of the front tibia is usually shorter and sharper 

 in the male than in the female, and the inner front claw more or 

 less dilated. The club of the antenna is sometimes very long in 

 the male, and the eyes may also be enlarged. Sexual difterences 

 are also found in different species in the coloration, sculpture of 

 the elytra or pygidium, tlie hairy clothing of the latter, the form 

 of the clypeus, margins of the elytra, spurs of the hind tibia, and 

 other features. These have been referred to more fully in the 

 introduction to this volume. 



In classifying the species of Anomala I have regarded as of 

 primary importance a feature to which little attention has been 

 paid hitherto, viz., the presence or absence of a complete marginal 

 stria at the base of the pronotura. This is found in all those 

 forms which may be regarded as the more primitive types of 

 Anomala, but has disappeared from the more characteristically 

 Oriental viridis and grandis group and the species allied to it. 

 In this section the claws are all of one type (the longer front and 

 middle claws cleft), but in the section with a complete mai-ginal 

 stria a great diversity of claw-structure occurs. Though un- 

 doubtedly important, the marginal stria cannot be treated as of 

 o-eneric value, for the members of the tesiacea and agilis groups 

 which are separated by this character approach each other very 

 closely and intermediates may be expected to occur. In the 

 merula group of species both forms are found, and, like every 

 other feature of this enormous genus, it may appear in a transi- 

 tional state. In the few Indian species whose allocation on that 

 account may seem a little dubious, if the sti-ia is not absolutely 

 complete, it is at least indicated by a distinct row of puuctures 

 and the actual edge is a little reflexed. 



The genus has been subdivided into very numerous genera :ind 

 subo-enera by different authors, all of whom have based their 

 systems upoii the species of some restricted region (like that of 

 Reitter upon the Palsearctic, and that of Casey on the Nearctic 

 species) or upon series of species forming only a minute fraction 

 of those now known (as in the schemes of Blanchard, Hope and 

 others). The characters employed invariably break down when 

 applied to other species or faunas than those upon which they 

 were founded. 



It would have been easy to apply names (generic or subgeneric) 

 to the sections into which the Indian species of Anomala are 

 divided in the following table but I have not done so because, in 

 my opinion, it would merely add to the existing confusion and, 



