154 Mr. H. W. Bates on Geodephagous 



thorax is a little longer and less transverse than in that 

 species, and the third stria is not so sharply incised. The 

 general colour is pitchy black or dark castaneous with a strong 

 brassy tinge. The basal sulcus of the thorax is faintly crenu- 

 lated as in the allied East-Asiatic species, and interrupted in 

 the middle, where the deeply impressed termination of the 

 dorsal line forms a distinct fovea. The red spots of the 

 elytra are not sharply defined on their borders and cannot be 

 called " round ;" they are sometimes very small or disappear 

 altogether. 



Tacliys ornatus. 

 Bemhidium drndtnm, Nietner, Ann. & ]Mag.Nat. Hist. 1858, ii. p. 426. 



Kandy. 



Specimens taken by Mr. Lewis agree with Nietner's de- 

 scription, except that the yellow elytral spots are not " orbi- 

 cular," but (especially the posterior one) transverse. The 

 forehead has two short parallel furrows on each side, and the 

 elytra have no trace of stria? between the second (from the 

 sutiire) and the eighth. 



Putzeys's redescription (Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, 1875, 

 p. 21), in which he says " antennarum basi testaceis," cannot 

 apply to Nietner's B. ornatum, which has uniformly pale an- 

 tenna3 and palpi. 



T. pcecilopferus (Bates) , from Fu-chau, is closely allied to 

 T. ornatus and T. scydmwno'ideSy but it is rather larger and 

 sufficiently distinct from both in the form of the thorax. 



TacJiys scydmcenoides. 

 Bemhidium scydmcenoides, Nietner, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1858, ii. 



p. 427. 

 Colombo. 



The sides of the thorax are sinuate-angustate from the 

 middle to the basal angles (making the base " fortius qua- 

 drato," as Nietner expresses it), the frontal furrows are broad 

 and deep, and the antennal joints from the fourth more or 

 less dusky. 



The size is, as in T. ornatus^ 2 millim. 



Tacliys infans. 



Parvus, oblongo-ovatus, mediocriter convexus, pallide testaceus ; 

 elytris medio vitta lata pallide fuscescenti ; fronte utrinque sulco 

 brevi unico ; tboi-ace transverse, antice late rotundato, versus basin 

 valde angustato, augulis posticis acutis ; elytris utrinque striis 

 punctulatis tribus, punctis 2 dorsalibus in stria tertia sitis. 



Long. 2 millim. 

 Kandy. 



