Coleopterous Genus Macrotoina. 377 



by Hope and Olivier could have supposed them to represent 

 the sexes of the same species. The figure given by Olivier 

 from the type in the Banksian collection very fairly repre- 

 sents the insect, which is of peculiar form, and not at all 

 like the elongate M. Hayesii. The type is a male. I have 

 never seen any other specimen. The female would doubt- 

 less be difScult to distinguish from M. irrionobius, White. 

 M. Thomson has not noticed the error of confounding these 

 two species, and in his ' Systema Cerambycidarum,' where he 

 correctlj^ gives M. serripes as the type of the genus, he adds 

 M. Hayesii as a synonym. In his description of M. natala 

 (Classif. des Ceramb. p. 315) he compares it with " M. 

 serripes,'''' but is evidently referring to M. Hayesii*. 



In the description of il/. valida (" Typi Ceramb.," llev. Zool. 

 1877, p. 271), M. Thomson, unfortunately, does not say 

 whether the femora are spined on the upper as well as 

 the lower edge, although his comparing it with M. naiala 

 rather implies this; hemerely says, ^' Pedes lajves, nitidi, modic^ 

 spinosi" — a very loose way of giving important characters in a 

 very difficult genus. 



If, as I suppose, M, valida^ Th., has bjth edges of the 

 femora spined, it may possibly be the female of the true Jf. 

 serripm. This is, however, only a suggestion. 



At the end of his description of M. serricollis ('' Typi Ce- 

 ramb.," Rev. Zool. 1877, p. 272) M. Thomson ha ;the following 

 observation : — " Assez grande et belle espfece tr^s-distinct, qui, 

 avec M. ahsurda, White, M. serripes^ Oliv., M. g ret/aria 

 (Dej.), Th., et M. scutellaris, Germ., compose le genre Frio- 

 nobius, Muls., d'ailleurs identique avec le genre actuel." 



il/. serricollis is described as having ^' Pedes validi^ asperi, 

 omnes subtus spinosi.^^ M. serripes is the type of the genus 

 Macrotoma. M. absurda is one of those species which have 

 a few spines on the upper as well as the under side of the 

 femora, and also has some very small spines on the tibice ; it 

 cannot therefore be a Prior>obius^ which is characterized by 

 its having the tibifB not spined. 



This leads me to another error. In the Stettin, ent. Zelt. 

 1881, p. 313, Dohrn has a note on M. absurda^ Newm., in 

 which he gives it as his opinion that that species should be 

 placed in the genus Remphan (among other reasons) because 

 it has the " anterior angles of the prothorax projecting over 

 the head " — a character quite foreign to M. absurda^ which 

 has only a small acute tooth at the anterior angle. 



Another view of M. serripes is to regard it as " M. dimidi- 



• Lacordaire (Gen. d. Col<3opt..viii. p. 97) evidently refers to 31. Hayesii 

 as M. serrijies. 



