NO.1170. THE FAMILY GOMPHODESMIDJE—COOK. 681 



plan quite distinct from those of any other Camily. The secoTifl joint is 

 compressed or triquetrous, liairy at base; it is soon narrowed into a 

 strongly compressed cliitinous band, wliich is stronj^ly dellexcd and 

 provided with an irregular knot-like i)rocess in the sinus. Distad from 

 this knot thecopulatory legs are narrowed into a usually very long and 

 variously curved ilagellum. There are two genera, Mtirpto^lrsniKs aud 

 Jlarmodentims, which depart strongly from tliis typical form and have 

 other characters which separate them from the remainder of the grou]), 

 without, however, connecting them with any other. Tiie r(Miiarkal)le 

 copulatory apparatus Just described, togetlier with the unusual num- 

 ber and unique character of the appliances whose function is in all 

 ])robability to assist in copulation, are perhaps indications of some 

 l)eculiar biologic condition existing in the present family, and i)erhaps 

 correlated with the fact that fully seven eighths of the known specimens 

 are males. The inference would seem to be that in connection with the 

 addition of tli(i numerous a(;cessories there has arisen a ])r('poMd('rance 

 of males such as is not known to exist elsewhere among I)ii)lopo(la. 

 As in other fimilies, it has been found possible to separat(i the genera 

 largely by the use of secondary sexual characters. That thcsi*, are not 

 meaningless and variable features, as supposed to be the case in some 

 Coleoptera, for instance, api)ears from the above facts as well as from 

 the constancy of the characters themselves. 



It will perhaps ai)p(!ar that the genera have been unduly multiplied, 

 which the future only can demonstrate. At i)reseut it seems to me 

 that the species which remain as congeneric are not at all closely 

 related, with one or two ex<;e])tions. It is also to be considered tiiat a 

 group obliged to adopt so many (levi(;es to n)ake pcrpetuaticm possible 

 would be likely to break into distinct subdivisions. 



Tliis family is distributed throughout tropical I'iast Africa, and out- 

 lying species are known from (Jaffraria, the IJpi>er Nile I'egion, and from 

 the (xermaii colonies of Kamerun and Togo. The Togo material con- 

 sists of two or three young individuals which have not been described, 

 but they belong without doubt to the ]H'esent family. A single species, 

 7]i/mbodesmuf{ JiffUnus, from Kamerun, is known to me. I*orath has 

 reported Aidodesmns mossamhicuH from Kamerun, but its existence 

 there is highly improbable, the nearest relative of the Kamerun species 

 being that from the Nile basin, collected by Schweinfurtli at Seriba 

 Ghattas, DJur, in the Bahr el Ohazal region. 



ANALYTICAL KKY TO TUK 8UIJKAMILIKS OK (iOMlMIOI>K.SMID/i;. 



Sternum of sixth Hogment of male with two Hlcnder proceHses located between the 

 bancH of tho {Ulterior pair of legs and sojturMtod from ea<li other ))y a conHidcrablo 

 space; fifth .segment with a pair of similar thoiigli smaller processes between the 

 jiosterior legs; copulatory legs with second joint nearly straight, short, divided at 

 apex: Subfamily Maki'Tode.smin.k, p.()82. 



.Sternum of sixth segment of mule with a single median, slender, subquadrate, or 

 very broad and medianly excised process; liftli segment without processes; copu- 

 latory legs with second Joint very long, strongly compressed antero-postically 



