(37 ) 



IX. Contrihutions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon 

 Valley (Coleoptera^ Prionides) . By H. W. Bates, 

 F.Z.S., Pres. Ent. Soc. 



[Bead 15th March, 1869.] 



The following pages contain a description of the genera 

 and species of Longicorn Coleoptera, Tribe Prionides, 

 obtained by me in the region of the Amazons^ and are a 

 continuation of a series of papers commenced in the 

 Annals and Magazine of Natural History^ in July, 1861. 

 Those papers completed the tribe Lamiides, leaving for 

 subsequent publication the tribes Prionides and Ceramly- 

 cides. My reasons for postponing the continuation of 

 the workj on the completion of the first part^ were the 

 want of a general classification of the Longicorns founded 

 on a study of the whole family, and a conviction of the 

 inconvenience to science of partial classifications appli- 

 cable only to a single fauna. Such a classification I was 

 compelled to invent for the Lamiides group ; which, 

 although it seemed to suit well the material I had before 

 me, I afterwards found impossible to reconcile with the 

 arrangements proposed by other writers, probably equally 

 well-suited to other faunas. This was especially the case 

 with the classification adopted by Mr. Pascoe for the 

 Longicorns of the Malay Archipelago, and the incon- 

 venience to which I have alluded was felt in this way, 

 that it was ipapossible, with two such distinct arrange- 

 ments, to institute those comparisons which all Naturalists 

 find so interesting, between the faunas of these two equa- 

 torial regions. The work which all Coleopterists inter- 

 ested in this family have been so long expecting, the 

 eighth volume of Lacoi-daire's "Genera" has at length 

 appeared, containing a new and well-considered classifi- 

 cation of the family, and there is no longer need to delay 

 the description of my collections. In so difficult a group 

 it would be presumptuous to alter this classification, 

 without a laborious study of material, as large as that 

 which has been at the command of Professor Lacordaire ; 

 and to do so in a partial manner would hinder rather 

 than forward the progress of our knowledge of the 

 group ; I shall, therefore, adopt it implicitly in the 

 following descriptions, although I believe, in some 

 points, it is far from natural in its arrangement. 



TEANS. ENT. SOC. 1869. — PART I. (APEIL) . 



