368 euchikinjE. 



channelled longitudinally ; the male has the sides dilated in the 

 middle. The front femur of the male is drawn into a point, 

 directed upwards at the end and armed with a laminar tooth at 

 the front edge ; it is almost straight and subject only to sliglit 

 elongation, unlike that ot Enchirus ; whereas the front tibia is 

 very greatly elongated, has a strong inwardly- directed process at 

 the end and another beyond the middle, and is sharply spinose 

 externally. It may also bear internally an array of tubercles, as 

 in P. jansoni, or a thick fringe of stiff hairs, as in P. himucro- 

 natus and i/avidi. (In EucJiirus it is without spines, processes 

 or fringe.) There is no articulated spine or spur at the extremity 

 of the front tibia in this sex. The organs of the mouth are as 

 already described, but the mentum is short and transA^erse, and 

 the maxillary teeth, which in Enchirus are strongly developed 

 and very sharp, are either quite absent or reduced to blunt 

 vestiges. The pygidium is vertical and concealed by the elytra. 



The female is rather more elongate than the male, with the 

 pronotum relatively narrower, the pygidium being oblique and 

 protruding beyond the elytra. The front coxse are almost 

 contiguous, and the front tibiae broad, acutely and irregularly 

 toothed along the outer edge, but without interjial processes ; 

 there is also a sharp articulated terminal spur. The hind tibia 

 is dilated at the end. The clypeus is longer and more quadrate 

 than in the male. In young specimens the front angles are 

 sharp and the front rrjargin almost straight, but this part, as 

 well as the teeth of the front tibia, is \ery subject to wear, 

 no doubt in the digging operations preceding the deposition of 

 the eggs. In old specimens the clypeus may be completely 

 rounded. 



Variation in size is very great, especially in the males, and, 

 as is invariably the case with such sexual features, the degree 

 of development of the fore-legs is in exaggerated ratio to the 

 size of the individual, so that in dwarfed specimens it is not very 

 considerable. In very small males the anterior angles of the 

 clypeus may be sharp and the shape of the latter approximate to 

 that of the female^ — a part of the general gynaudromorphism. 



M. Pouillaiide has recently described as new species four forms 

 received by M. Eene Oberthiir from different localities in the 

 regions on the borders of the Indian Empii-e. Two of these 

 are known to occur also within those borders and are re])re- 

 sented in the British Museum. All four are evident local 

 representatives of P. macleayi, differing by the shape of the 

 front tibiae of the male and by slight variations in the spotting 

 of the elytra. Extremely few individuals of each have at 

 present been examined, so that the constancy of these differentia 

 has not yet been put to the test, but it may reasonably be 

 anticipated that collecting in intermediate localities will reveal 

 forms n)ore or letjs linking together those distinguished by 

 M. Pouillaude by these usually variable features only. A careful 

 comparison of numerous specimens from many localities is really 



