( 9 ) 



II. Descriptions of eirjlit new species, and a new genus 

 o/'Cossonidesy)-om New Zealand. By D. Sharp. 



[Read December yth, 1877.] 



In this paper I have draAvn up short descriptions of eight 

 new species of Cossonides from New Zealand ; they are 

 all from the province of Auckland, and are due to the 

 researches of Captain Thos. Broun and Mr. Thos. Law- 

 son. They offer another proof of the excessive difficulty 

 that exists in dealing satisfactorily with genera in face of 

 our present very limited knoAvledge of the existing species 

 of Coleoptera. Being anxious to avoid making ncAV 

 generic names, I have allowed myself to do so for one 

 only of the eight species, Entium aherrans, a minute and 

 feeble Cossonid, to be placed probably near Penta.rtlirum 

 and Sericotrogns in Mr. WoUaston's arrangement, but 

 differing from those insects by the approximate anterior 

 coxa3 and feeble tibial hooks. The remarkable Pentar- 

 thrum Wollastonianum, and its ally Ptntarthrum dehile, 

 might, perhaps, with advantage have been treated as a dis- 

 tinct genus differentiated from Pentarthrum by the form 

 of the head, the eyes being remote from the neck ; in that 

 case the closely-allied Hawaian Pentarthrum prolixum 

 must have been associated with them. In the case of 

 Scricotrogiis simulans and Scricotrogus setiger, the 

 characters I have pointed out might be considered to call 

 for the establishment of two new genera ; but as I feel 

 sure that our knowledge of the New Zealand Cossonides 

 is yet quite in its early stages, and as I fancy that any 

 competent entomologist, having these two species before 

 him, would a priori have suggested to him a relationship 

 with Sericotrogus suhatnescens, I have left them with that 

 species under the one generic name. 



Pentarthrum Wollastoniajium, n. sp. Perelongatum, 

 angustum, subdepressum, subnitidum, subtiliter punctatum, 

 piceo-ferrugineum ; oculis a collo remotis ; prothorace sat 

 elongato, antrorsum fortiter angustato, ad marginem 

 anteriorem levissime constricto, crebre subtiliter punctato, 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1878. — PART I. (aI'R.) 



