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XXII. The Scolyto-platypini, a new subfamily of Scoly- 
tide. By Waurer F. H. Buanprorp, M.A., F.Z.S. 
[Read October 4th, 1893.] 
PLATE XIV. 
One of the most interesting questions connected with 
the Rhynchophora is that of the determination of the 
systematic position, or rather of the systematic im- 
portance and affinities of the Platypini. This isolated 
and compact group of insects presents abnormalities in 
structure which separate it widely from the remainder 
of the Scolytide and from other Rhynchophora. Indeed, 
it may be said that the structural differences between a 
Platypid and other Scolytids, in the formation of the 
trophi, legs, prothorax and metasternum, and indeed all 
the chitinous parts, are far greater than those which 
separate the genera at the other end of the Scolytid 
series, for example, Hylastes, from Curculionide, such 
as the Cossonids. This difference has been generally 
recognised by the division of the family into two groups 
or subfamilies, to contain respectively the Platypini and 
the other Scolytids; and is perhaps more as a matter of 
convenience, than for any other reason, that the Platy- 
pint have been retained in the same family at all. They 
have indeed been rejected by Hichhoff, who, after close 
study of the Tomicini, the group usually supposed to 
have most affinity with the Platypini, has expressed the 
opinion that they form an absolutely distinct family, 
and are not to be brought, “gleichsam unter einen 
Hut,” with the other Scolytide. Latterly, Bedel, in 
his Coléopteres du Bassin de la Seine: Rhynchophora, 
has separated the Platypide as a distinct family in the 
table of families at the beginning of the work (p. 8), but 
has reunited them with the other Scolytide (p. 885) when 
dealing with the family in detail. This decision is wise, 
as systematic works on the fauna of a very restricted 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1893.—pPaRT Iv. (DEC.) 
