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XXI. Observations on the genus Helota, M'Leay, with 

 description of a neio species from Japan. By 

 Eev. H. S. GoEHAM. 



[Read 6th July, 1874.] 



The genus Helota was established by jNI'Leay, in the 

 " Annulosa Javanica," for an insect from Java, Helota 

 Vigorsii, which he described then as " one of the most 

 curious and novel forms of the whole collection." Since 

 then AYestwood has made known a second species, H. 

 Mellyi, from India, in " The Oriental Cabinet," and Hojie a 

 i\\v:^,H.Guerinii, in "The Coleoptcrist's Manual." The 

 genus is in every way a most remarkable one, and stands 

 alone as a most aberrant, or rather as a highly developed, 

 and so isolated form in the group to which M'Leay, as 

 I believe, has rightly assigned it, viz., the Necrophaga. 

 That Mr. Lewis should have found a fourth species in 

 Japan, which by its habits, feeding at the sap exuding 

 from the bores of the Cossus larva, as well as by its curious 

 sexual characters, confirms its location there near to Ips, 

 will be admitted as one of the most interesting of his 

 discoveries in the far East, and not less the fact of this 

 tropical genus extending so far north, though this is a 

 point with which his collections there have familiarized us. 



M'Leay has, I think, laid too much stress on a supposed 

 affinity to the Erotyliens, and especially to Languria, 

 based it Avould seem on nothing more than the elongate 

 form, clavate antennas, and metallic hue; the tarsal 

 structure is essentially distinct. 



It is true, indeed, that in this latter respect Helota 

 diverges widely from Ips, for while in that it is the fourth 

 joint that is minute, here the first is very small and con- 

 cealed by the socket of the tibire at their insertion. If, 

 however, we regard the general habit of the s])ecies, 

 together with the curious elongation of the elytra_ in the 

 female, there can be little doubt of its true location, for 

 the same disparity is found in Ips, where it is the female 

 that has the longer, and sometimes acuminate, elytra. But 

 while thinking that Ips is the nearest ally Helota has, I 



TEANS. ENT. SOC. 1874.— PART IV. (DEC) 



