GQC^ Mr. W. L. Distant's 



to our knowledge of these insects, and recently Breddin 

 has contributed to the same. 



The latest enumeration of the species is still that of 

 Butler, compiled in 1874 ("Cistula Entomologica," vol. i.). 

 He there included 104 species oi Cosriioscarta and 22 species 

 of Phymatostetha. An approximate estimate would now 

 point to the known species being some 163 species of 

 Cosmoscarta, and 28 species of Phymatostetha, but it is 

 absolutely certain that our knowledge is still very incom- 

 plete, and that the time has scarcely airived for the forma- 

 tion of a systematic catalogue. 



The arrangement of the species is still a matter for 

 individual opinion. Structural, differential, and sectional 

 characters are to be found in the size, shape, and surface of 

 the pronotum and in the conformation of the face, while 

 sternal characters have been used by some describers. 

 Other workers have only, or chiefly, used the tegmina, the 

 colour and markings on which have been employed in a 

 similar manner to the process which obtains in the study of 

 the wings in Lepidoptera. In an evolutionary sense there is 

 much to commend this view, partial as it is from an ento- 

 mological standpoint. I believe — with diflfidence — that the 

 tegmina in Cosmoscarta and Pliymatostetha exhibit in their 

 markings characters of the greatest phylogenetic value, and 

 that they may be used according to the biological method 

 of to-day, which seeks to establish affinities rather than 

 to accentuate differences. I have in the arrangement of 

 my species seen traces of an unicolorous beginning, gradu- 

 ally breaking up into spots, again coalescing in stripes, but 

 I have no theory to formulate, for the process might be 

 reversed. An evolutionist need not be a sectarian, nor 

 need biological suggestions be mistaken for philosophical 

 dogmas. 



Genus Cosmoscarta. 



Cosmoscarta, Stal, Ofv. Vet.-Ak. Forh., 1870, p. 718. 



Cosmoscarta mcmra, sp. u. 



Body and tegmina piceous ; lateral and posterior margins of pro- 

 notum, femora, bases of posterior tibiae, and a small broken dis- 

 coidal spot to tegmina, ochraceous ; wings smoky hyaline. 



Pronotum with the lateral margins distinctly reflexed, its surface 

 rugulose and coarsely punctate, its lateral angles subangulately 

 rounded ; posterior tibiae with two strong outer spines, one at apex 



