388 Mr. F. P. Pascoe on the Brenthidae. 



XXVIII. — Notes on the Brenthidae. 

 By Fkancis P. Pascoe, F.L.S., <fec. 



Most of the Brenthidce described iii these notes are due to Mr. 

 Wallace's indefatigable researches in the Indian Islands, where they 

 seem to abound. There are stiU materials, however, for a very con- 

 siderable addition to our knowledge of this family ; and, considering 

 their bizarre forms and the doubtful place which they occupy in 

 classification (evidently, however, a transition group), it is somewhat 

 remarkable that so little should have been written concerning them. 

 It is not my iutention just now to do more than indicate some of 

 these novelties ; but, to those which we owe to Mr. Wallace, I have 

 added another form from South Africa, which bears such an evident, 

 although perhaps somewhat distant, resemblance to Hypocephaltis, 

 that I cannot help regarding Mr. Curtis's idea* that the latter is a 

 gigantic Brentlius as much nearer the mark than his latest opinion, 

 which refers it to the Lamellicornia ! In the following pages the 

 descriptions only apply to the males, — the females, as is well known, 

 Offering principally in the simple terete rostrum and basal insertion 

 of the antennae. 



ECTOCEMUS. 



Caput parvum, postice siiblobatum, collo brevissimo, oculis subbasalibus. 

 Rostnmi elongatum, canaliculatum, basi rugosum, apice abrupte alatuni, 

 mandibulis parvis exsertis. Antennce longiusculas, teretes, articidis 

 secimdis tertiisque subequalibus. Prothorax subovato-ampliatus, laevis. 

 Elytra breves, subtriangiilares, apice quadricaUosa. Pedes mediocres, 

 antici elongati, femoribus dentatis, tibiis anticis subcurvatis, apice 

 spinosis, tarsis brevibus. 



In some respects this genus approaches Arrhenodes, although in 

 habit it is more like Ehajthirhynchus ; but the form of the head, the 

 smallness of the mandibles, and, above all, the peculiar rostmm are 

 sufficiently distinctive. 



Ectocenms Wallacei. 



E. rufo-feiTugineus ; eljiiris nigris, flavo lineatis, fortiter punctato-striatis, 

 apice angidatis. 



Hab. Batcliian. 



Head and rostrum about one-third the total length, the fomier some- 

 what bilobed and smooth behind the eyes, black, the neck indistinct, 

 rostrum slightly narrowing to the middle, where it receives the an- 

 tennae, black, and rugosely pimctate, beyond the antennae gradually 



* See Trans. Linnean Soc. 1854, p. 227. 



