TRITOMIDEA ATRIPENNIS. 257 



NOTE XXL 



A NEW SPECIES OF THE COLEOPTEROUS GENUS 

 TRITOMIDEA, MOTSCH. 



DESCRIBED BY 



the Rev. H. S. GORHAM. 



Tritomidea is the Eastern and Tropical representative of 

 the Palgearctic genus Tritoma ^) from which it is distin- 

 guished by the form of the maxillary palpi which have the 

 apical joint dilated as in some Triplax. The antennae have 

 the terminal joint of the club smaller than that preceeding 

 it. Spondotriplax Crotch, to which the insect here descri- 

 bed has also some affinity, has the terminal joint larger, 

 and the club is longer , and the third joint of the antennae 

 is longer. Euxestus Woll. is the Atlantic type. 



Tritomidea atripennis^ sp. n. 

 Ovata^ laete fulva, fere glabra, antennarum clava elytris- 

 que nigris , his cosruleo micantibus, striatopunctatis , intersti- 

 tiis leviter minute punctatis. — Long. 4 — 4^/4 millim. 



1) Cyrtotriplax Crotch (Ent. Mo. Mag. IX. p. 189. — Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. 

 1873. p. 355) is a mere substitution for Triioma Fabr., of which the type is 

 T. bipttstulata F., on tbe ground of its not being the Tritoma of Geoffroy. — 

 Geoffroy , as is well known, does not employ specific names, but his figure 

 (tab. VI, fig. 2) evidently represents the insect known as Mycetophagus qua- 

 (Iripiistulatus , but he figured the tarsi with three joints, instead of, as they 

 are, with four; and states that it was (as he supposed) on this account that 

 the French applied the name «La Tritome" to the insect ! Geoffroy was as 

 likely to be wrong about the application of a popular term as he was about 

 the (number of joints in the tarsi, and until naturalists adopt Tritoma for the 

 Mycvtophagus , the change of name fails in justification. — Tritoma was used 

 in Botany by Ker subsequently, in 1801. 



Notes frotn the Ley den Museum, "Vol. "VII. 



17 



