328 Longicornia Malayana. 



1 must confess appears to me at present to be doubtful. M.Leon 

 Fairmaire treats them as a distinct group, but if the subordinate 

 divisions of the longicorn families were to be elaborated in the same 

 way throughout the whole of their extent, several hundred such 

 groups would be necessary, and I am not sure that this may not 

 be found to be the most natural arrangement. 



The leading characters of the Saperdince are as follows: — the 

 intermediate tibiae are very slightly or not at all emarginate, and 

 never furnished with a tooth as in the more typical Lamiidce ; the 

 prothorax is cylindrical and unarmed; the femora are linear or 

 thickened in the middle, rarely- clavate ; and the pro- and meso- 

 sterna are simple. The head also is generally rounded in front, 

 and not exserted ; the antennae are of moderate length, sometimes 

 however very long, setaceous, and distant at the base ; the feet 

 rather short; the body compact and often slightly depressed, and 

 the abdominal segments of unequal length.. Tliey are distinguished 

 from the Obereince and AmphionychincE by their simple claws, never 

 appendiculate or bifid ; and from the Hippopsince, to which many 

 of their genera approximate, by the distant bases of their antennae. 

 It is sometimes difficult to distinguish some of the Apomecynince 

 from the members of this sub-family, but the former often show 

 traces of the prothoracic tooth which are not present in the Saper- 

 dince* 



The genera and speciesof/S'operc/ina? are numerous in the north- 

 ern temperate region of both the old and new worlds. In the 

 tropical portions of America, Amillarus is its only exponent, and 

 this in Chili is replaced by Eviphytoecia. In Africa we have 

 Eunidia, Syess'ita, C/mriexthes, &c. In Australia at this moment 

 they are entirely unknov\ n, and this fact affords another proof of the 

 striking dissimilarity that exists between its beetle-fauna and that 

 of the Malayan region, as Mr. Wallace's Collection alone contains 

 thirty-five species, divided into eight genera. It must be observed, 

 that the character drawn from the absence of emargination of the 

 intermediate tibiae is not absolute, but that a slight break in the 

 continuity of the exterior edge is sometimes visible ; as it is, the 

 character serves to separate into two very natural categories the 

 genera of the Malayan members of this sub-family, the first four 

 having, moreover, a graduated approximation to the preceding sub- 

 family, and the remainder to the Astalheince, which follow. 



* On this account I refer Ztjgritu to the Apomeci/tihia, where indeed M. 

 J. Thomson originally placed it, rather than to the SnperdineB, to which that 

 authority has referred it in the more recent " Systema." 



