a new Genus of Cardbideous Insects. 213 



rather in the situation of the notch,* with its accompanying spine, 

 than in its presence and absence ; an examination of the anterior 

 tibiae of Tefflus and Pamborus will show this to be the case, inas- 

 much as we here find in the anterior tibiae a structure intermediate 

 between that observed in Carabus and that which is most common 

 in the geodephagous insects. In Carabus the groove is longitudinal, 

 and the spine corresponding to that, situated in the emarginated 

 portion of the tibiae of most other carabideous insects, is terminal, 

 or very nearly so ; in Tefflus and Pamborus the groove is oblique 

 and the spine is removed from the apex of the tibiae, and in 

 Brachygnathus we find the notch still very low down : indeed I 

 can scarcely perceive any difference between the structure of the 

 anterior tibiae in the last mentioned genus and in Tefflus. Now, 

 in most classifications of the CarabidcE, Tefflus and Pamborus are 

 placed near to Carabus, these genera being considered nearly re- 

 lated ; but if in nearly allied genera such variations in the anterior 

 tibiae are formed, we cannot give that weight to the character 

 before mentioned which we otherwise should do, and should not 

 consider ourselves justified in removing the present new genus 

 from among the insects with which I propose to place it on account 

 of the notch in the anterior tibiae being situated high up. The 

 structure of the head and palpi I regard as of higher importance. 

 For the present insect I propose the generic name Disphericus, in 

 allusion to the almost spherical form both of the thorax and 

 abdomen ; and the specific name o£ Gambianus, to denote the part 

 of the world in which it is found. 



* I do not give these observations as new, the following lines by Latreille in 

 the Regne Animal are to the same effect:—" Nous passerons maintenant aux 

 carabiques dont les jambes anterieures n'ont point d'echancrure au cote interne, 

 ou cjui en offrent une, mais coramen^aut tres pies de I'extremite de ces jambes, ou 

 ne s'avanfant point sur leur face anterieute et ne foimant qu'un canal oblique et 

 lineaire." 



