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NOTES ON THE PiEDERINI. 



By Thos. L. Casey. 



As preliminary to a revision of our Pcederini,'^ it is desired at the 

 present time to publish a few notes and descriptions in the form of a 

 prodromus. 



HOMCEOTARSUS Hochh. 



At the time of publication of the description o^ Hesperobhim (Bull. 

 Cal. Acad. Sci., 11, p. '^'^f^, the genus Homceotarsus was unknown to me 

 in nature, but within the past year I have received from Herr Reitter of 

 Vienna a perfect male specimen of H. Chaudoiri, the type of the genus, 

 and find that our species should be generically associated with it, at 

 least for the present. It is true that there are certain differences of 

 minor value, as for instance in the antennas, which in the Armenian 

 species have the joints strangulated at base, and the eleventh joint fusi- 

 form and gradually pointed at apex. The sexual characters are also 

 different, presenting a form of emargination. of the fifth and sixth seg- 

 ments, which is quite foreign to our species. These differences are, 

 however, of a secondary or perhaps subgeneric value, and when the 

 genus is thoroughly investigated the species assigned more particularly 

 to Hesperobium, will form one only of a number of subgenera ; until 

 that time the name can very well be suppressed. 



In the remarkable collection recently made by Mr. H. H. Smith in 

 Brazil, there are several very peculiar species ; one, for example, in 

 which the large lobe of the third segment in the male is deeply bilobed, 

 giving the appearance of two well developed lobes, and another large 

 slender species, having unusually long and slender legs, in which the 

 posterior trochanters of the male are prolonged in a slender spine which 

 extends to the apex of the femur, reminding us somewhat of the same 

 part in the Carabide genus Platidiiis of Chaudoir. 



The following table indicates the differential characters of the 

 eastern species allied to pallipes Grav. 



Elytra subequal in length to the prothorax. 



Posterior margin of the fifth ventral segment ^f toothed in the middle ; emarg- 

 ination of the sixth segment deeper than wide pallipes 



* In order that this work may be as complete and useful as possible, it is earnestly 

 hoped that those who have material to spare, may consent to its utilization in the pro- 

 posed revision. In connection with this request it should be suggested, and I think 

 most collectors will readily agree, that it would be far better for the ultimate welfare 

 of Science if unique types could be retained in the cabinet of the reviser. The con- 

 tributors would, however, in every case receive in return a larger set of carefully de- 

 termined species than can probably be included in their individual series. 



