236 + Mr. J.O. Westwood’s iVoies, Sc. 
by M. Guérin was discovered by him in the stoves for pine apples 
at Fleury, and proves, from subsequent communications made to 
the same society at the next meeting, to be identical with the 
Calyptobium caularum, which had been inaccurately described 
by M. Aubé, who *s’excuse de son erreur relativement au nom 
d’Holoparamecus en disant, qu il n’a pu reconnaaitre comme iden- 
tiques un genre figuré par M. Curtis, avec neuf articles aux 
antennes et le sein qui en presente réellement onze.” 
We have thus a genus, of which the characters assigned to it 
by three different writers entirely agree, except that Mr. Curtis 
describes the antenne as 9-jointed, M. Aubé as 11-jointed, and 
myself as 10-jointed; it appears, however, from a communication 
published by M. Motschoulski,* that the species with 9-jointed 
antennz was long ago described in Germany under the name of 
Sylvanus singularis by Beck,} and that in consequence of this dis- 
covery, M. Guérin Méneville has ascertained that his species pos- 
sesses only nine joints, for which he accordingly proposes to 
retain the generic name of Holoparamecus, and to employ that of 
Calyptobium for those with 11-jointed antenne. If such a step 
were, however, to be adopted, it would be necessary to give a 
third generic name to my insect with 10-jointed antenne. 
On exainining these insects, and comparing them with M. Aubé’s 
figures, it is impossible to arrive at any other conclusion than that 
they belong to one and the same genus, and that the variation in 
the number of the joints of the antenne is either a specific or sexual 
character, a circumstance in itself of so unusual occurrence in the 
clavicorn Coleoptera, that I have considered it well worthy of being 
brought before the notice of the Society. 
Under these circumstances, I now beg leave to exhibit to the 
Entomological Society my original specimen from Sierra Leone, 
possessing ten joints to the antennee; and two other species, one 
taken by myself in the decayed part of a wooden case, containing 
insects lately received from India, and the other received by me 
from M. Reiche, without any indication of its country, but with 
the specific name of difficile of Villa, which is identical in Villa’s 
Catalogue with Cal. Ville. 
The former of these two specimens | observed to run with con- 
siderable agility, secreting itself quickly in crevices of the decayed 
wood. 
* Rey. Zool. par la Soc. Cuvier, 1844, p. 442. 
+ Beitr. zur Baierisch. Ins. Faun. ‘* Nitidus, ferrugineus, depressus, antennis 
9-articulatis, elytris substriatis—I] se trouve dans le riz pourri. Peut-etre est-il 
exotique ?”’ 
