Longicornia Maloyana. 439 



Tmesisternin^. 



Until the publication of M. James Thomson's " Essai" it was 

 usual to regard the Tmesisfernince as Cerambijcidce, chiefly on ac- 

 count of their porrect head. The presence, however, of grooves 

 in the anterior tibiae, and the corneous lower lip, have determined 

 me also to treat them as Lami'idce. With regard to the first-men- 

 tioned character, many species, and even genera, are now known 

 with vertical heads ; it is therefore evident that we have come to 

 a point when the character has lost its primary importance. The 

 sub-family is, in fact, a transitional one, and shows an affinity 

 not only to the Cerambyc'tdce, but also, on account of the margined 

 sides of the prothorax of many of the genera, to the Pr'tonidce. 



It might have been better, perhaps, to have separated the least 

 typical part of this sub-family from the true Tmesisteniirice, or 

 those with a porrect head ; but there are some genera, Crinotursua, 

 Leptunota, &c., in which the head is almost or quite vertical in 

 repose ; and then again Hesthna and Arsysia^ from the characters 

 of their sterna, could not well be placed in a different group. 

 Tliere is certainly a great amount of diversity among the species, 

 but the genera are tolerably homogeneous, with the exception of 

 Pol If. to and Tmes'isternus itself. 



One of the most curious points connected with this sub-family 

 is its geographical distribution. According to the present state 

 of our knowledge, it is almost entirely confined to the islands 

 lying east of Borneo and Java. The only species to the west are 

 Truchelopliora curvicollls in Sumatra and Java, and Mulciher hi- 

 guttatus in Singapore. To the south we know only of three spe- 

 cies in the vast Australian region — Teninosternus planiusculus, T. 

 (t'lsshnil'is and Anastetha raripila ; in New Caledonia and the 

 Feejee Islands we find the genera Sp'mtheria, Blapsilon, Enicodes, 

 BuprestomorpJia, Leptonota and Crinoaoma ; in New Zealand, 

 TetroreOy Nmomorplia and Coplomina ; and in the Philippines, 

 Ichlhyodes, Urocalymma and Demodcs. They probably exist also 

 in New Britain, New Ireland, the Salomon group, the New He- 



mata. Pedes parum voh\xst\ ; femora fusiformia ; tarsi sequales; ungues 

 basi obsolete dentati. Abdomen conicum, segmentis subaequalibus. 

 A robust form allied to Ghnea, but at once differentiated by the angular or 

 toothed sides of the prothorax, and the distinctly jointed antennae. The 

 type was described by Mr. W. Wilson Saunders under the name of Lamia 

 rroceocivcta (Tr. Ent. Soc. ii 178, pi. xvi. fig. 6). It is about 8 lines long, 

 black, the sideb of the prothorax and two bands on the elytra pure yellow. 



