Mr. J. O. Westwood’s Characters, &c. 225 
XXXII. Characters of various new Groups and Species 
amongst the Coprophagous Lamellicorn Beetles. By 
J.O. Wxstwoop, F.L.S. &e. 
{Read 7th March, 1842, &c. | 
As CONSIDERABLE interest is attached to the various types of form 
amongst the species of insects known by the ordinary name of 
sacred beetles (on account of the veneration with which the. 
Egyptians regarded those particular species which are inhabitants 
of their strange land,) I need offer no apology in submitting to the 
notice of the members of this Society descriptions and figures of 
various new and interesting species belonging to that family lately 
arrived in this country. | 
One of these insects possesses characters differing so much from 
those of all the rest of the true and typical subgenus Heliocan- 
tharus, to which it is most nearly allied, that I am induced to 
regard it as possessing a higher rank than that of a mere species 
of that group; at the same time it is to be admitted that it seems 
scarcely entitled to an equal rank with the types of form which 
Mr. MacLeay has named Mnematium, Pachysoma and Gymno- 
pleurus. 
Srpasteos, Westw. 
Typus Scarabeorum sacrorum, Heliocantharo magis affinis. 
Antenne articulo 3tio et 4to 5to duplo longioribus, subzequali- 
bus, 5to et 6to brevibus, pateriformibus; 7mo, 8vo et 9no 
clavam angustiorem formantibus. Caput maximum. Clypeus 
radiatus, dentibus duobus anticis obtusis, intermediis latis 
truncatis, posticis duobus angulatis; clypeus subtus antice 
dentibus tribus deflexis armatus. Tubiz anticee angulate, 
extus 4-dentatee, dentibus duobus apicalibus inter se remotis, 
intus serratula denteque medio armate. ‘Tarsi antici obso- 
leti; postici 2 articulis subclavatis verticillatis. 
Of these characters the variation in the relative size of the 
intermediate joints of the antenn, the large size of the head, the 
curious horns with which the under side of the projecting lobes of 
the clypeus are armed, the curved fore legs armed on the inside 
beyond the middle with a short tooth, and the form of the hind 
tarsi, are those by which it is most easily distinguished from the 
true Heliocanthari. 
VOL, IV. Qa 
