240 Mr. J. 8. Baly’s Descriptions of uncharacterized 
maculis obscure fulvis; -supra fulva, subnitida; antennis 
vertice elytrorumque margine basali nigris; thorace lateribus 
sinuatis, intra latera bifossulato, disco levi utrinque foveo- 
lato et ibi fusco-maculato; elytris profunde punctato-striatis, 
interstitiis elevato-reticulatis, interspatiis alternis modice 
carinatis. 
Long. 5 lin. 
Hab. Zambesi. Collected by Mr. Waller. 
Thorax nearly as wide at its base as the elytra, quickly narrowed 
from base to apex; sides nearly straight, sinuate in their middle ; 
apical margin truncate, anterior angles scarcely produced, obtuse. 
The discovery of a species of the (hitherto considered) ex- 
clusively Indian genus Calopepla, in the southern portion of 
tropical Africa, is highly interesting, and, like the similar oc- 
currence of Sagra, Hopliondta, Aspidomorpha, and other genera 
common to the two countries, would seem to point to a former 
more intimate connexion between these two quarters of the globe, 
rendering it probable that in some former geological epoch a large 
connecting tract of now-submerged land existed in the Indian 
Ocean. In accordance with this view, the few known species 
of the genus (only four in number) found in such widely-distant 
localities, and agreeing so completely in generic characters, may 
be looked upon as the remnants of a much more numerous race, 
which formerly flourished in greater abundance on the now lost 
intermediate continent. 
An analogous case in the same family is to be found in the 
nearly allied genus Hoplionota, the species of which, according 
to Boheman, are exclusively confined, on the one hand, to 
Madagasear and southern Africa, on the other to India and the 
Malay Archipelago. Madagascar and Ceylon (both of which 
islands are probably remnants of the now lost land) contain more 
than two-thirds of the known species, the others (four in Africa 
and five or six in India and the Malay Archipelago) spreading 
in either case in a southerly direction on their respective con- 
tinents. The occurrence of so Jarge a proportion of the species 
in Madagascar and Ceylon would seem to show that the birthplace 
or metropolis of the genus formerly existed at some intermediate 
point, and that the species now living have spread themselves on 
either side from this common centre. 
It may however be argued that these various genera have 
migrated over both continents through Egypt, Arabia and Persia; 
the alteration of climate, the spread of sandy deserts, and other 
causes, having given rise to the gradual or sudden extinction of 
