Genera of the CossonidcB. 549 
of being bald, is more or less besmeared with mud-like 
scales.* 
5Q. [MiMUS (Fahraeus, Ofvers. Vet. Ak. Fork. 283. 
1871). — Not having been able to procm^e a type of the 
species (from Southern Africa) for Avhich the present was 
established by Fahraeus, I know nothing whatever con- 
cerning either its structvu'e or its affinities, — the former, 
if we may judge from the diagnosis, being of the most 
commonplace description, and such as might apply equally 
to two-thirds of the entire Cossonidce ; whilst so far as the 
latter are .concerned, not a syllable is recorded by Fahraeus 
except that the group represents a new. " tribe " of the 
family. But why this should be the case it is impossible 
to conjecture, seeing that his description does not indicate 
so much as a single structural anomaly. Since he sjDeaks 
however of the elytra as sulcate (no allusion being made 
to punctured stride), and the body as black and closely 
sculptured, I am inclined (on the merest conjecture) to 
place the genus next to Psilosornus (from Ceylon and the 
Malayan peninsula), — in which the elytra are emphatically 
" sulcated," and the punctation is altogether dense.] 
57. Amorphocerus (Schonherr, Cure. Disp. Meth. 
329. 1826). — The South- African genus Amorpliocerus, for 
types of which (the A. rufipes, Boh., and the A. zamia, 
Boh.) I am indebted to Mr. Pascoe and Mr. Janson, has 
many peculiarities of its own, — one of which, namely the 
construction of its tibire, would rather tend to remove it 
from the present family. These latter are decidedly 
abnormal for the Cossonida, — being not only unusually 
broad, triangular, and compressed, but with their apical 
hook (understanding that almost universal appendage as 
a prolo7if/atioji of the outer angle) obsolete. It is true that 
a long and curved spine is conspicuous, but then it does 
not proceed from the external angle (which is merely sur- 
mounted with a very short and straight spinule) ; and also 
* I think it is far from unlikely that the insect which forms the type of 
the genus Psilosornus is the one which was described by Mr. Walker {Ann. 
Nat. Hist. iv. 218, 1859) under the name of " Cossonus ? hehes ; but since 
his diagnosis is contained in ten words, and is unaccompanied by a single 
remark, it is iniiDossible without an examination of the type itself to decide 
this point. But in any case the generic characters have not hitherto been 
defined ; and I have thought it worth while therefore, even if the species 
should prove eventually to be the one alluded to by Mr. Walker, to place 
them on record. 
