[From the American Naturalist, Vol. ix, February, 1875.] 



An Additional Character for the Definition of Rhyn- 

 CHOPHOROUs Coleoptera.J — On two former occasions I have 

 invited the attention of my colleagues of the Academy to the re- 

 lations which the Rhj^nchophorous Coleoptera bear to the other 

 divisions of that order of insects. In the first of these I endeav- 

 ored to show that they formed a group which was equivalent to all 

 the others combined. The defining character of the group I 

 stated to be, that the posterior lateral elements (the prothoracic " 

 epimera), of the under surface of the prothorax, coalesced on the 

 median line, in such a manner as to form a longitudinal suture be- 

 hind the end of the prosternum ; in all other Coleoptera'^ the pro- 

 sternum ends in a vacant space, or extends so as to take part in ~ 

 the articulation between the pro- and metathoracic segments. In 

 the second memoir I attempted a sketch of the manner in which 

 the group might be naturally divided into series and families. 



1 Read before the National Academy of Sciences, at Philadelphia, Nov. 5, 1874. 

 'Except in Cossyphus and a few ColydiidK. 

 (112) 



