Coleopterous Subfamily Dynastinge. 163 



inner claw of the front tarsus is not toothed as in the male 

 of the last-described species. 



Prionoryctes brevius cuius, ep. n. 



Breviter cylindricus, postice paulo ampliatus, niger, nitidus, corpore 

 Bubtus piceo-rufo, breviter rufo-hirsuto ; caj)ite omnino rugoso, 

 froute medio leviter impressa, tiiberculis duobus sat remotis 

 armata ; prothorace toto marginato, grosse punctato, medii 

 postice punctis paulo magis subtilibus, ante marginem anticiim 

 tuberculis duobus connatis fere obsoletis iustructo ; scutello paulo 

 punctato ; el3"tri8 punctatis, liueitj quatuor geminatis striaque 

 suturali profunda, intei'stitiis disperse marginibusque exteruia 

 creberrime punctulatis ; pygidio crebre et minute coriaceo : 



2 ) pygidio basi breviter setoso. 



Long. 22*5 mm. ; lat. max. 12'5 mm. 



Hab. S.Nigeria : Lagos (Ussher) ; Liberia [A. McCloy). 



The Museum contains one specimen of each sex. 



This is the smallest known species and has a rather short 

 and compact form, the elytra broadest a little before the 

 extremity. It is black above and strongly and deeply punc- 

 tured, with very fine punctulations scantily sprinkled between 

 the large punctures of the elytra, but densely crowded at the 

 outer margins. The pygidium is convex and coriaceous in 

 both sexes, and the puncture-bearing setae in the female are 

 confined to the base, and not, as in P. rufopiceus^ scattered 

 over the surface. The inner front claws of the male are not 

 toothed. 



In constituting his genera Prosphileurus and Archophanes 

 Prof. Kolbe has omitted any reference to their sexual 

 characteristics, perhaps because he knew only one sex. The 

 latter genus exhibits almost the highest developed armature 

 found in female Lamellicornia. A close similarity between 

 the sexes is a feature of the group Phileurini, which is princi- 

 pally American, but the armature is generally little developed 

 in the group. In the allied Oriental forms for which I have 

 made the genus Eophilew-us, and in most of the related 

 African genera (e. g. Rhizoplatys), differences appear both in 

 superficial configuration and in the front tarsi, and it is 

 interesting to find Phileurini strayed so far from the metro- 

 polis of the group in which the armature is exceptionally 

 developed and yet not sexual. The females of Archophanes 

 cratericollis, Fairm., and Prosphileurus poggei, Har., and 

 especially the former, are remarkably male-like. Both 

 species seem to have a very wide range, the first extending 



11* 



