SOME OBSERVATIONS 
ON THE GENUS OODEMAS 
OF THE FAMILY COSSONIDÆ 
WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES 
by the Rev. T. BLACKBURN, B. A. 
— SÉANCE DU 6 JUILLET 1878 — 
The species of this singular genus bear a most striking superfi- 
cial resemblance to those of Psylliodes. They generally occur in 
bark (usually that of dead trees, but sometimes in dead fragments 
of bark on living trees) or in dry dead wood. One species, however 
(0. nivicola), 1 found at an altitude of 10,000 feet (where 1t is occa- 
sionnally in contact with snow even in this intertropical latitude), 
in some numbers under large masses of /ava, but I could not detect 
a single specimen in or on any plant. There is, of course, not- 
withstanding, no doubt but that it must be nourished by some 
plant. I observed a stunted shrub growing plentifully near its loca- 
lity which appeared to be the only vegetable in the neighbourhood 
capable of maintaining a wood borer of its size. 
The genus Oodemas has not yet been observed, I believe, ontside 
the Hawaïian archipelago. During the past 18 months I have col- 
lected ten very distinct species, of which scarcely one appears to 
be of wide distribution even on a single island. 
Oodemas was characterized by Boheman (Voy. d. l’Eugénie, 
p. 138) on a species that he obtained in the vicinity of Honolulu, 
and which he named ænescens. 1 have not seen an original type of 
ænescens, but have met with one species (commonly), and one only 
in the locality he mentions which (even nearly) agrees with his 
description; but to this insect his description applies so exactly 
that I have no hesitation in considering it identified. 
I have myself, already, described one species, under the name 
halticoides (Ent. Monthly Mag. Vol. XIV, p. 5.). Consequently 
