208 Mr. J. O. Westwood's Descriptions 



and the tibiae are not more than half the length of the tarsi, a pecu- 

 liarity which of course permits greater flexibility in the limb ; the 

 anterior femora are the thickest, but all the legs are simple, the 

 tarsi are four-jointed and compressed, the three basal joints setose 

 beneath, the third shortest and notched above for the reception of 

 the base of the terminal joint, which scarcely exhibits any trace of 

 the node at the base. The abdomen is singularly formed, the 

 greater portion of the ventral surface being occupied by the basal 

 joint, which is very convex. This is followed by two very short 

 tranverse joints, obliquely truncated, the terminal joint being also 

 very short, semi-oval, and with a deep central longitudinal channel. 

 The wings are nearly twice the length of the elytra, folded near 

 the middle, the apical half traversed by three longitudinal veins. 



The female has the head formed somewhat like that of the spe- 

 cimen of Taphroderes Whil'd figured in my Cabinet of Oriental 

 Entomology, pi. 15, fig. 6, the snout being nearly half as long as 

 the head, and about two-thirds of its width, with the antennee in- 

 serted at a little distance in front of the eyes ; the mandibles are 

 minute, conical, pointed at the tip, with a very small tooth on the 

 inside. The legs are simple, and the antennae are like those of 

 the male. 



The rarity of the species of Taphroderes, and the remarkable 

 sexual differences which they exhibit, render the discovery of 

 both sexes of another species very instructiv.e. The specimens 

 of Tajik. Wh'itn, which I have hitherto observed, (another having 

 been recently received by the Entomological Society from India, 

 in the splendid collection forwarded by Captain Hutton,) nearly 

 agree with the female of T. distorlus in the form of snout (except 

 that it is rather wider and the antennae are affixed nearer to the 

 apex than to the eyes) and also in the antennae, pecidiar excavated 

 sides of the prothorax and tarsi ; but the prothorax is strongly 

 punctate, and the elytra are rounded at the apex and regularly 

 punctate-striate ; but the most remarkable character of T. JVhitii, 

 which leads at once to the idea that the specimens are males, is 

 the elongation of the hind legs, with the strong clavation of the 

 posterior femora. 



Captain Parry's Ceylon Taphroderes has a still shorter and 

 broader rostrum, rather dilated at its extremity, with the antennae 

 affixed about half-way between the eyes and the apex, and the 

 hind femora are broad and compressed, with a deep notch both on 

 the upper and lower edge : the elytra are deeply punctate-striate 

 and the tip rounded. Compared with the specimen of Taphroderes 

 'l-sig7iatus, Buq., next to be noticed, this Ceylon insect must be 



