298 Mr. J. O. Westwood’s Description 
ters, it is the female which must be examined, with the view 
to the situation of the species in the system, for in this sex 
those characters which most strikingly individualize the species 
are not reproduced, and consequently the characters of the family 
are more clearly to be seen. Thus, whilst the male of the spe- 
cies before us possesses a character which not only at once 
individualizes it amongst the great mass of Lamellicorn beetles, 
but also distinguishes it from every known Coleopterous insect, 
(namely, the posterior production of the middle of the hinder 
part of the pronotum into a curved slender horn, extending back- 
wards over the scutellum and base of the suture,) the female 
at first sight possesses so little of distinctive peculiarity that it 
might be mistaken for a dull-coloured Chasmodia or Pelid- 
nota. It is worthy of further remark, that whilst so many of the 
Rutelide possess a strongly porrected mesosternal spine, this 
insect has the pro- and meso-sterna entirely simple, and not in 
the least degree prominent or porrected; in fact it would almost 
seem to be a freak of nature which has metamorphosed the por- 
rected mesosternum of Rutela into the recurved pronotal horn of 
Peperonota. In its simple sterna, moreover, this genus affords a 
better representation of the Geotrupide (of which the Rutelide are 
the analogues in the Classification of MacLeay) than the ordinary 
types of the family. In addition to the preceding observations I 
shall only notice, that the rugose tuberculated clypeus, the identity 
in the mode in which the tarsal ungues of both sexes are notched, 
and the broad and very short scutellum, constitute its chief marks 
of distinction from the majority of the family to which it belongs, 
As it is contrary to the strict rules of nomenclature to derive 
either a generic or specific name from a sexual character, I have 
abstained from employing the singular formation of the pronotum 
as a ground for the appellation of the insect; I therefore propose 
for it the name of 
Peperonota Harringtonu, 
Obscure luteo-fulva (3) vel nigra (@), capite supra nigro, an- 
tennarum clava fulva, pronoto maris fulvo, disco brunneo, 
foeminee nigro punctato, elytris luteo- vel castaneo-fulvis, 
maculis minutis irregularibus, plus minusve confluentibus 
notatis. 
Long. corp. lin. 10, 6; lin. 9, @. 
Habitat in India orientali, prope montes Himalayanas, et mecum 
(pro descriptione) communicato Dom. Harrington, F.L.S. 
Entomologo indefesso. (In Mus. Dom. Parry et Melly.) 
