310 Coleopterological Notices. 



behind, the posterior oval, rapidly attenuate laterally and scarcely attaining 

 the metasternal episterna which are rather wide. Abdomen composed of five 

 segments which are free or very nearly so, separated by very coarse, deeply 

 impressed and straight sutures ; basal segment nearly as long as the next 

 three together. Legs short, moderately robust; tibiae slender, the spurs not 

 distinct ; tarsi slender, tetramerous ; joints of the posterior all elongate, the 

 fourth much shorter than the first three combined. 



On comparing these characters with the corresponding ones of 

 Rhagodera and Anchonima, it is readily seen that the antenna? 

 differ radically, for, besides being of a usual type and not in the 

 least perfoliate, they have the last joint wide, while in the genera 

 mentioned the last joint is small, exactly as in the Asidini of the 

 Tenebrionidse ; in this connection attention is called to the small 

 terminal joint in Xarthecius. Megataphrus further differs from the 

 Ehagoderini in having antennal fossae at the sides of the head and 

 prosternum not only present, but developed to an extraordinary 

 degree, and in the elongate basal segment of the abdomen ; it how- 

 ever resembles the tribe mentioned in having the antennae inserted 

 at a great distance from the eyes, which in the present instance are 

 all but obsolete, and in the structure of the anterior coxae, acetabula 

 and prosternal process, also in its roughly scabrous appearance. 

 There seems to be no course left, therefore, but to consider it the 

 representative of a distinct synthetic tribe. 1 



M. teilllicoi'llis n. sp. — Oblong, rather robust, parallel, strongly, un- 

 evenly convex, piceous-black, dull and roughly scabrous. Head moderate, 

 wider than long, very coarsely punctato-tuberculose, the sides tumid over the 

 antenna?, the occiput with a small median fovea. Prothorax anteriorly some- 

 what as in Coxelus, about one-fourth wider than long ; base and apex equal, 

 the latter truncate between the large and greatly advanced apical angles, 

 which are rather acute and not rounded ; base pedunculate, the peduncle 

 short, three-fifths as wide as the disk, transversely truncate ; sides parallel, 

 evenly and distinctly arcuate, minutely but strongly serrate, the teeth tri- 



1 The European genus Tarphius, which appears to approach Megataphrus 

 in some respects, differs in its broader form of body with non-pedunculated 

 pronotum, in its well-developed eyes which are more approximate to the point 

 of antennal insertion, and in the very short basal joint of the tarsi ; in Mega- 

 taphrus the hind tarsi are slender, the basal joint being subequal in length 

 to the next two together. In Tarphius, which is considered a member of the 

 Synchitini, the antennal grooves are, according to Wollaston, not really exca- 

 vations, but more feeble impressions. It cannot be denied, however, that the 

 tribe Megataphrini is also closely allied to the Synchitini, of which it might 

 perhaps with almost equal plausibility form a group. 



