2 I 8 COLEOPTERA 



postice latioribus, obsolete subtilissime punctulatis, nigris, basi testaceo, 

 singulo elytro ad apicem oblique arcuatim truncate. Ahdomine nigro- 

 piceo, lateribus subtilissime punctulato, segmentis primo secundoque ad 

 apicem testaceis. 



Long., 2>\ lin. ; lat, | lin. 



Christchurch (Mr. Wakefield). 



Note. — This species also occurs in the North Island. 



I found five specimens near Whangarei Heads. 



Group— BRONTID^. 



Maxillce exposed. Ligiila entire or a little emarginate. Autennce 

 filiform, slender, at least half as long as the body, their joints cylindrical, 

 the basal elongate. Tafsi pentamerous in both sexes, their first joint 

 very short. 



Dryocora. 



Pascoe ; Proc. Entoni. Soc, xi., 17 February, 1868. 



(Cuciijo affinis). Palpi acuti. Prothorax apicem versus gradatim 

 angustior, lateribus integris. Prosterniim latum. Mdasterniim elonga- 

 tum. Tarsi ^ et % 4-articulati. 



383. D. howittii, Pascoe; Proc. Entoin. Soc, xi., 17 February, 

 1868. Ferniginea, nitida ; elytris subtiliter lineato-punctatis. 



Long., 4 lin. 



New Zealand. 



Mr. Pascoe exhibited a beetle from New Zealand (probably from 

 Otago), which he regarded as the type of a new genus of Cucujidce, and 

 which he proposed to describe under the name of Dryocora lumnttii. 

 He remarked that members of some of the clavicorn families were well 

 known to have ta^si with varying numbers of joints ; or when the 

 normal number were present, the basal joint was very small or almost 

 obsolete, as in many Cucujidce ; or the penultimate was very small or 

 almost obsolete as in the Nitidulidce. In Cucujus the tarsi were hetero- 

 merous in the male and pentamerous in the female, but in Dryocora, 

 which in other respects was allied to Cucujiis, the tarsi were tetramerous 

 in both sexes, the basal joint being suppressed. 



Organic modifications of this kind, and the exaggerations of form of 

 some one organ which in certain groups was found to be subject to 

 unusual modification — as the antennte in Paussidce, the eyes of Hippo- 

 psincc, the pronota oi Mcmbracidie, &:c. — seemed to Mr. Pascoe "to point 

 to a law of aberration only to be explained on the hypothesis of the 

 derivative origin of species." 



Dendrophagus. 



Scha'iih. ; La cord. His/, des I/is. Colcop., Tom. ii., p. 407. 



Mentum strongly transversal, sinuated in front. Ligula horny, 

 feebly hollowed in front, its anterior angles strongly prolonged. External 



