10 



M. Guerin-Meneville, to have Walrus-like jaws, RsLethrus has incurved 

 mandibles and other features useful in supporting the creature iu the 

 holes of the ground whence it comes. As aberrant Prioniclee may be 

 mentioned, the vary curious genera Torneutes, Reich., described in 

 the Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. (ii. 9, t. 2, f. 7), of which three species 

 are now known, one from Patagouia, described by M. Gueriu, and 

 the singulariy interesting Erichsonia of Mexico, named by Mr. 

 Westwood, in memory of that most laborious and scientific of all the 

 German entomologists, Dr. Erichson. The genus Thaumasua, 

 Reich. (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 18.53, p. 419), founded on what Olivier 

 described as a gigantic species of Ips (Ips gigas, Journ. d'Hist. Nat. 

 1792, i. 267, pi. 14. f. 6 ; Thaumasus g. Reich. 1. c. p. 422, pi. 13. 

 f. 4.), may be particularized as auother aberrant form. In fact, the 

 family PrionideB, likę many other great families, is more negative 

 than positive, and will be found at its extremities, or at many points 

 of its circumference, to lead off to other families, and even tribes : 

 so that the naturalist, who wishes to simplify arrangement, however 

 much he may split up genera, ought to avoid dividing families. 



It may interest the general reader to tjuote a short passage frora a 

 privately circulated paper, written by my friend Mr. Empson of Bath, 

 a distinguished natural-history traveller in South America. The insect 

 alluded to is the noble Psalidognathns Friendii (G. R. Gray), which 

 is named by the natives of Columbia ' Alaja,' that is, ' the jewel.' Mr. 

 Empson remarks, " the first of these splendid insects which I ever saw, 

 was at a feast given by the Cabildo, at Mariquita; upon that occasion 

 Don Domingo Conde had placed one of them as a button to loop up, 

 after the Spanish fashion, the broad brim of his Panama hat ; to this 

 brilliant ornament a loop of liv-ing Fireflies was attached, in a mode 

 common in South America, and which does not injure those dazzling 

 insect gems ; thus decorated, the sombrero of the cavalero was more 

 conspicuous in the ball-room than the jewelled tiaras of his more 

 wealthy neighbours, although sparkhng with the choice emeralds 

 from the minės of Muzo. 



" After many a weary search," adds Mr. Empson, " with Don 

 Domingo for my guide, in the primseval forests on the eastern slopes 

 of the Andes, we captured three of those Alajas." One of those, he 

 remarks, " was resting on the perishing trunk of a palm-tree ; in our 

 eagerness to secure it, my hand was so much lacerated that I was 

 obliged to relinquish my prize, and we saw its gorgeous colours 

 flashing beneath the fiill blaze of a tropical sun ; it settled on the 

 stem of a cedar, and was then more cautiously transferred into my 

 possession." 



With these few remarks, which might be much amplified, a curious 

 genus of Prioniclee, allied to Psalidognathus, G. R. Gray, and to 

 Prionaealus, figured in a previous part of the Proceedings, may be 

 here briefly described. It is strictiy pseudo-tetramerous, and has 

 much of the character of Mr. George Gray's fine Columbian genus. 

 This genus, for which I would propose the name Psalidocoptus*, is 



* '9a\k, scissors, and kotttio, from a fanciful idea of the waved outline being 

 as it were cnt with that instniment. 



