434 Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera Jrom Old Calabar. 



Prionidae. 



DORYCERA, White, 



Dorycera spinicornis, Fab.; White, Brit. Mus. Catal. Longi- 

 corns, i. p. 13, tab. 1. fig. 1 (1853) ; also figured by me in 

 Trans. Linn. Soe. xxiii. tab. 47. fig. 8 a. 



Apparently rare in Old Calabar. 



This is another representative of a South- American form in 

 Old Calabar. It has very much the appearance of Ortho- 

 megas corticinus from Cayenne, but still more that of PoJyoza 

 Lacordairei^ from Brazil. The former is placed near it by 

 Lacordaire, but the latter is removed to a distance in an- 

 other section. It seems to me that the natural affinities of 

 all three are close together. I by no means desire to exalt 

 one character to the disparagement, much less the exclusion, 

 of others ; but I must repeat the conviction I have long held 

 ■and often urged, that surface and texture deserve much more 

 attention than they usually receive as indications of natural 

 affinity. If that test be applied here, it will bring together a 

 number of opaque, sericeous-surfaced, depressed Prionidaj dis- 

 tinguished by large eyes, spined thorax, and flat or flabellate 

 antennae, and in particular the American and West- African 

 species I allude to, showing that Dorycera sjnmcorms is a 

 West- African representative of a Brazilian natural group. 



Macrotoma. 

 1. Macrotoma jyahnata, Fab. Ent. Syst. ii. p. 249. 

 Apparently rare at Old Calabar. 



The genus Macrotoma is confined to the Old World, and is 

 most numerous in Africa ; so is the Avhole family of Macro- 

 tomidte, Avith one exception, a single species forming a sepa- 

 rate genus {Strongylaspis) , which is found in Mexico' and 

 Cuba. I am not disposed to refer its presence there to any 

 communication between the west coast of Africa and South 

 America ; that communication took place (as I think I can 

 show) before the union of Brazil with the rest of South America. 

 And if Stroyigylasjn's were an aberrant form of West-African 

 Macrotoma which reached Mexico by filtration through Brazil, 

 it should have left traces in Brazil, which do not exist, at 

 least are not known. We knoAv, however, that Mexico and 

 some other parts of South America preserve traces of commu- 

 nication with Madagascar (where Macrotoma also occurs) ; and 

 I should rather be disposed to look there for the origin or 

 connexion of Strongylaspis. 



