293 



others as the first group. If the antennal characters were dis- 

 regarded these species might very well be placed near //. 

 hidld, Blackb. The second group consists of large or very- 

 large species in which the marginal gutter of the pronotum 

 presents the remarkable structure indicated in the tabulation, 

 a character, however, that does not appear to be of much im- 

 portance, since several species not possessing it are otherwise 

 very close to some in the second group ; it is, however, of great 

 value for purposes of identification. The preceding two 

 groups having been eliminated, I have arranged the remain- 

 der of the groups by means of the character that appears to 

 me the most fundamental of those I have observed in the 

 genus, inasmuch as well-marked differences in respect of it 

 seem to be somewhat uniformly accompanied by other differ- 

 ences, such as in facies, colour, texture of elytra, etc. I refer 

 to the structure of the maxillary palpi. Usins: this character 

 I first separate as the third group a small aggregate of species 

 having a remarkable imjoression on the apical joint of the 

 maxillary palpi. The remainder of the genus I then divide 

 into two sections (''D" and ''DD" in the preceding tabula- 

 tion) according as the penultimate joint of the maxillary palpi 

 is or is not longer than the antepenultimate. It must be 

 admitted, however, that there are a few intermediate forms 

 in which there is little or no difference in length between these 

 joints, but these forms will present no practical difficulty in 

 identification, because if they be pl?ced together it will be 

 found that they naturally divide themselves into two aggre- 

 gates, in one of which (while the penultimate joint is invari- 

 ably, I think, at any rate a trifle longer than the ante- 

 penultimate) the facies is in general that of the species in 

 which the antepenultimate joint of the palpi is very shorty 

 and the dorsal surface is invariably more or less brilliantly 

 iridescent ; and in the other aggregate the facies is very dif- 

 ferent (average size smaller, texture notably less fragile), and 

 the dorsal surface is not, in any species known to me, irides- 

 cent. The aggregate ''D" does not seem to lend itself to sec- 

 tional division, and therefore I treat it as a single (the fourth) 

 group. The aggregate ''DD," however, is much less homo- 

 geneous, and contains a few isolated forms which I have sepa- 

 rated as the seventh and eighth groups, the eighth consisting 

 of three species not very much like each other, or very close to 

 any other Haflonycha, but which happen to agree in present- 

 ing the unusual character of the head, pronotum, and py- 

 gidium being black ; while the seventh group consists of a few 

 species bearing a general resemblance to those of the third 

 group, and differing from all those of the fifth, sixth, and 



