96 THE REV. F. W. HOPE’S CHARACTERS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF 
Thorax anticé declivis. 
Elytra ad latera basin versus sinuata. 
The insects forming this group differ so materially from the type of Copris, Fab., 
that I have not hesitated in considering them as forming a distinct genus, to which I 
have applied the name of Coptorhina, in allusion to the deeply notched clypeus. Those 
species of the great group Ateuchus of Fabricius which have a strong emargination of 
the elytra at their lateral edge near the base, were separated from that genus by Illiger, 
who gave them the generic name of Gymnopleurus. A corresponding emargination had 
not before been observed among the Coprides, and its existence in the insects which I 
am about to describe, authorizes their separation on precisely similar grounds to those 
on which the genus Gymnopleurus rests. 
Coptorhina is apparently the connecting link between Copris and Gymnopleurus ; and 
I have little doubt that in tropical Africa many species of this form will be found, and 
probably also a subgenus connected with it, having the clypeus entire, and the elytra 
sinuated near the base. The connecting link between Copris and Ateuchus appears to 
me to be still wanting, for I cannot consider as such the genus Circellium, Lat. It is 
more difficult to connect Copris with Onitis, Fab. ; but it is probable that in India, or 
in some of the islands adjacent to it, such a link may be found, assuming the form of 
Onthophagus, Lat. It is most likely that such a form should occur where Onitis is not 
a prominent group. 
1. CoprorHInA AFRICANA. 
Tab. XIV. Fig. 1. 
Copt. nigra; thorace anticé retuso, postice valdé elevato; elytris convexis, tenussime 
punctato-striatis. 
Long. corporis (dentibus clypei inclusis) 8 lin. ; lat. 5. 
Hab. in Sierra Leone. 
Mus. Hope. 
Descr. Insectum totum nigrum, punctatissimum. Clypeus profundé incisus, seu melius 
dentibus duobus magnis armatus. Thorax recurvus, anticé retusus, posticé pro- 
minentia lata foveolé media impress4 lineaque utrinque impressa vix distincta 
neque ad marginem posticum extensd. Elytra ad latera sinuata, undique punctis 
minutissimis sparsis instructa, striisque septem punctorum majorum octavaque 
laterali curva ad apicem excurrente cumque stria dorsali secunda conjuncta. 
Scutellum nullum. Corpus magnum, gibbum. Elytra abdomen longitudine equantia. 
Pedes breves, antici 5-dentati. 
