Genera of the CossonidcE. 541 
44. Thaumastophasis {iiov. gen.). — It is for an insect 
which was captured at Gawler in Southern Australia, and 
which has been communicated by Mr. Pascoe, that the 
present genus is proposed ; and so remarkable is it in 
many of its structural details that I could at first scarcely 
persuade myself that it was a member of the CossonidxB 
at all. But since at least three other forms (outside the 
anomalous subfamily On7/cholipides),nsi\nelyAorus, Lipan- 
cylus, and Xenocnema, have the tibial hook obsolete, 
and are nevertheless veritable Cossonids, one at any rate 
of its most significant features may be regarded as not 
altogether unparalleled even in the present department of 
the Rhynckojihora. And certainly in Tliaumastophasis 
the tibial uncus is strictly " obsolete" (and not completely 
absent), — for, when examined beneath a high magnifying 
power, its presence may readily be detected in the anterior 
pair, and I am not altogether sure that I cannot recognize 
traces of it in the four posterior ones likewise (though I 
will not be quite positive on this point) ; whilst the fact of 
its front coxaj being contiguous, and the intermediate ones 
but barely separated, is almost in exact accordance with 
what we observe in Pseudophlceophagus, and which is like- 
wise unmistakeably approached in even Phloeophagus 
proper. 
I need scarcely add that the affinities of Thaumasto- 
phasis are extremely difficult ; but, nevertheless, having 
once decided that it is a veritable member of the present 
family, I am inclined to think that it "vvill be better to place 
it near to Psevdophlmophagus than elsewhere, — with which 
(despite its many eccentricities) it agrees at all events in 
the shape and proportions of its (rather thick and linear) 
rostrum, and in its antenna? being long and slender, as 
well as in its body (although short) being parallel, seri- 
ceous and convex, its metasternum much abbreviated, its 
front coxffi contiguous (or practically so) and the inter- 
mediate pair but faintly apart, and in its feet (which how- 
ever are considerably thicker) having their basal joint (like 
the second one of the funiculus) appreciably lengthened, 
and the third one (although very much more conspicuously 
so) expanded and bilobed. 
In other particidars Thaumastophasis is remarkable for 
its perfectly enormous eyes (which however are not ex- 
tremely prominent), for its slender and acuminated club, 
for its prothorax (which is small, and very much narrower 
than the elytra) being slightly uneven, or as it were 
Q Q 2 
