Genera of the Cossonidce. 573 
and the underside being (at any rate in the example now 
before me) piceous, with the limbs of a still clearer tint. 
91. Stereoderus {;nov. gen.). — The present genus is 
manifestly allied to Stereohorus and Stereotinhus, — though 
the rather smaller size to which its members Avould appear 
to descend, added to their more convex, cylindrical bodies, 
more lightly sculptured surface, and their more conical, 
unimpressed prothorax, gives them more the appearance 
at first sight of such forms as Xestoderma and Xestosoma 
(which are equally dark and highly -polished, and have a 
broad, abbreviated rostrum) in the vicinity of the Rhyncoli. 
Nevertheless, the peculiar construction of its rostrum, 
which is often barbed beneath with long fulvescent hairs, 
and has three small clefts in the upper anterior excavation 
which receives the labrum, as well as a curious tendency to 
be armed with one or more tubercles in the centre behind 
(all of which exist, more or less modified, in Stereotrihus), 
is too significant to be misunderstood. And when we add 
to this the characteristic shortness of its scape, the exces- 
sive robustness of its limbs, and the internally dilated 
basal half of its anterior tibias (the superadded triangular 
portion arising from a robust spinule, situated at some 
distance behind the spiniform inner angle), each of Avhich 
is conspicuously expressed in that genus, there can be no 
longer the slightest room for doubt as to its true affinities. 
Its eyes are large, very Avide apart, and somewhat anterior 
in their position ; and its third tarsal joint, as in most of 
these immediate groups, is simple. 
Stereoderus is a genus which would seem to have a 
rather extended geographical range, — out of the three 
species now before me (all of which are from the collection 
of Mr. Pascoe), two having been captured by Mr, Wallace 
in the islands of the Malayan archipelago, whilst the other 
is from the Fiji islands in the Pacific. The latter, how- 
ever, although I think it is impossible to regard it as 
generically distinct, shows a slight structural difference in 
the minute emargination at the extreme apex of its 
rostrum, — the large medially-cleft lobe, which nearly fills 
up the cavity in the other two species (causing the whole 
central piece to appear trijid) being so short, small, and 
entire as to be strictly obsolete. But so diminutive a 
character, even though structural, can scarcely be regarded 
as more than a trivial one. 
s s 2 
