H8 Rev. F. D. Morice on 
named it, nor prepared a description of it. Limagine that 
he expected to find one, when he should be able to return 
home and consult books which he had not by him in the sea- 
side lodgings where his last MSS. were composed. I have 
failed, however, to encounter such descriptions; and as a 
search through the collections of Larridae (European, 
African, and Asiatic) in the British Museum (South 
Kensington) has revealed no species much resembling the 
present—except, as aforesaid, monetaria, Sm.—I can only 
treat it as new. 
What Smith calls the “ beautiful tessellated appearance ” 
of the golden-haired abdomen in monetaria is a striking 
character also in superbiens. The same phenomenon is 
described in greater detail by Lepelletier in his account of 
7’. illudens (but that is generally supposed to be a Liris, 
and it cannot, at any rate, be the insect now under con- 
sideration). Really the whole abdomen is clothed with 
minute golden hairs, but these only become visible when 
they reflect the light at certain particular angles; and the 
result is that, when looked at from behind, the abdomen 
appears chequered (like a chessboard) with alternate 
squares of hght and darkness, these squares shifting their 
position, and sometimes actually becoming reversed, when 
the point of view is altered. 
Nigra, dense punctulata; abdomine, mandibulis in medio, pedum- 
que apicibus testaceis ; tegulis ochraceo-flavidis ; alarum superiorum 
margine apicali late infuscato, basi ac disco hyalinis. Pedes robusti, 
spinosi. Metatarsi antici serie subaequali 6 spinarum armati, spinis 
his in 9 testaceis, validis, rectis, in ¢ albidis, multo minoribus. 
Oculi in vertice (praecipue in ¢) valde approximati. Distantia 
horum longitudini antenn. artic. 4 in 9, 5° in ¢ subaequalis 
(certe non maior sed ut videtur aliquanto minor quam in T’ frey- 
gessnert, Kohl). Neque antennae, neque clypeus notam ullam 
singularem praebent. Huius parsapicalis in 9 nonnihil deplanatur 
vel imprimitur, margine (in medio) subproducto, sed lenissime. 
2. Caput, thorax cum propodeo, basisque segmenti abdominalis 
1™, pilis tenuibus albidis subhirta. Praeterea facies, tempora pone 
oculos, latera thoracis plus minusve, pedesque partim (e.g. femora 
quatuor anteriora subtus), itemque margo mesonoti totus (7. e. antice 
postice et in lateribus) et postscutellum (non autem scutellum) pilis 
stratis vel substratis argenteis pulcherrime resplendent, Abdomen 
pube aureo-sericea revera quidem totum conspersum, specie vero, 
secundum lucis incidentias varias, varie tessellatum ; (parte pilositatis 
