102 !Mr. D. Sharp's Contribuiiuns to the 



Amazonian si)ccimcns, I have never seen another indi- 

 vidual of the p;enus from the Ncav AVorld. 



These new species a])pear to exhibit the pecuhar charac- 

 teristics of the genus very highly dcA'elopcd. The struc- 

 ture of the front of the head and the insertion of the 

 antennas approaches in these species even more to what 

 exists in the Xcmtholini than it does in the Old Worhl 

 J^lafj/p7-osopi ; the antenna? are even more approximate in 

 their insertion than in the Old AVorld species, and more- 

 over the part of the head to Avhich they are attached is 

 more prominent, and is a little emarginate on each side of 

 the middle, so that the front of the head and the attach- 

 ment of the labrum have very much the appearance pre- 

 sented by the same parts in the Xantholini . 



The genus is one of the most interesting of the Stapln/- 

 linidcE ; it is located by Erichson and Kraatz as a peculiar 

 member of the XanilioUni, but I cannot consider that this 

 is a correct mode of treating it. The points of structure 

 I have already alluded to, viz., the antennal insertion and 

 the attachment of the labrum, are almost the only points 

 the genus has in common with the Xantholini, while it 

 "wants some of the most important ]ioints of structure of that 

 group, and in certain respects apj^roaches to the Quediini 

 and even to the Pinophilini. As the group XantJwlini 

 appears to me one of the most specialized portions of the 

 Sta])]iyHnidcE, and as Platijprosopiis is pretty clearly of a 

 synthetic or little sjDecializcd character, it seems to me 

 that it will be very much more suggestive of the truth if 

 the genus be considered to form of itself a group, to be 

 located in the neighbourhood of the Quediini ; for I can- 

 not but think that the purposes of inquiry are very much 

 better served by the establishment of a considerable num- 

 ber of i^rovisional groups, than by slumping together (if 

 I may use such a term) under one name a number of hete- 

 rogeneous forms, having probably very different genetic 

 histories. 



1. Platyprosopus major, n. sp. Parallelus, nigro- 

 piceus, capite subopaco, dense punctato, medio spatio 

 angusto la3vi, nitido ; thorace parce punctato, nitido, mar- 

 ginibus lateralibus dense fbrtiter punctatis ; elytris ab- 

 domineque dense subtiliter punctatis, opacis, fusco-pubes- 

 centibus; pedibus fuscis. Long. corp. extens. 10 — 12 lin. 



Antennas pitchy, stout, about as long as the head and 

 half the thorax; 3rd joint longer than 2nd; 4 — 10 differ- 



