100 Mr. W. S. Dallas's Sketch 



XXVII. Sketch of the Genus Poecilocoris, belonging to the 

 Hemi-pterous Family Scutelleridse. P>y W. S. Dallas, 

 Esq. 



[Read 3d April, 1848.] 



In a paper in the third volume of the Transactions of the Ento- 

 mological Society, at p. 84, Mr. White proposed the division of 

 Tectocons, Hahn, into two genera, retaining the name Tectocoris 

 for that section which contains Hahn's type {T. cyanipes, Fab.), 

 and proposing that of Pcecilochroma* for the other, containing 

 C'lmex Drurcei, Lin., and some allied species. The genus Scutel- 

 lera, of Amyot and Serville, corresponds exactly with Tectocoris 

 as above restricted, but those Entomologists have established no 

 generic group to which the species forming the present genus can 

 be referred. 



As Mr. White, in the paper quoted above, did not fully charac- 

 terize this genus, it may be as well here to give its distinctive 

 characters at length. 



Genus Pcecilocoris, {Pcecilochroma, White). 



CimeXfLinn.; Drury; Fab. olim. Tetyra,Fah.; Burm. Scutellera, 



Guer. ; Burm. ; Germ. ; H. SchafFer. Tectocoris, Hope. 



Pachycoris, H. SchafFer. 



Body ovate, convex. Head (PI. XIII. fig. a) rather large, broad, 

 the lateral margins sinuated before the eyes. Antennce (fig. a) 

 about half the length of the body, of five joints ; basal joint short, 

 robust ; second, shorter and thinnest ; third, fourth and fifth, each 

 as long as, or longer than the two basal united, nearly equal, com- 

 pressed, broad, and furrowed longitudinally on the sides. Rostrum 

 generally passing the second segment of the abdomen, in some 

 species extending nearly to its apex. Scutellum slightly truncated 

 at the apex. Abdomen (fig. h) with a more or less distinct furrow 

 beneath ; the three penultimate segments in the male not bearing 

 the dull space on each side which exists in Tectocoris (fig. c), and 

 the anal plate, in the same sex, simple, consisting only of one 

 piece, which has its extremity sinuated, and fringed with hairs. 



* As I have been informed, since this was read, that the generic name Potcilo. 

 chroma, applied to this genus by Mr. White, had been previously employed in 

 Lepidopteva, 1 have, with that gentleman's concurrence, changed his name for 

 that which stands at the head of this paper. 



