On the Malacoderin Genera Piioiioccrus antl I>J mu. :Vi5 



XXXIir. — The Malacoderin Genera Priouocerus and Idgia, 

 and their Serual Characters [Coteojjtera] . By (i. C. 

 Champion, F.Z.S. 



[riates XI. & XII.] 



This paper is based upon a study of the species of PrionO' 



cenis, Pcrty, and fdr/ia, Cast., contained in the National 



Collection at S. Kensington, in the Hope collection at 



Oxford, and in that of .Mr. 11. K. Andrcwes, the last-named 



hein^ rich in Indian forms *, including types or co-types of 



various insects determined by Hourgeois a!id Gorham. The 



British Museum material includes the types of three Indian 



species belonging to the genus Idf/ia — Cantharis melano- 



cephala^ Fabr., Telephorns assimi/is, Hope, and Thaccona 



dimeUena, Walk. — which have been omitted from or are 



wrongly placed in our catalogues ; many interesting 



Malayan forms captured by Mr. Doherty or Mr. G. E. 



Bryant ; and very extensive series of several species from 



the highlands of ilastern and Central A.frica. The two 



genera here studied, which Lacordaire, Redtenbacher, and 



Bourgeois were inclined to treat as one, are restricted to 



Africa aud Asia ; and upwards of sixty species have been 



described as belonging to them, about half of these having 



been named during recent years by Pic. 



The sexual characters of the forms enumerated in this 

 paper are described iu detail, important tarsal and other 

 structures having been apparently overlooked by all writers 

 on these insects, including Bourgeois, who has given a good 

 deal of attention to the subject. Another mark of dis- 

 tinction, unnoticed in our text-books, and common to the 

 two sexes, is the single spur to the anterior tibiae, the 

 absence of the second spur being characteristic of the 

 G^demcrid genera Nncerdes and Xanthochroa, the species of 

 which hear a superficial rescmlilance to many Idyide. The 

 males of Prionocerus and Idyia have, in common, a closely, 

 regularly pectinate, black comb along the inner edge of 

 joints 1-3 of the anterior tarsi, which is quite conspicuous 

 in the yellow-legged forms f. A similarly pectinate comb 



• The types of the new species described from his collection and a 

 selection of the others have been presented by Mr. Audrewea to the 

 Museum. 



t The males of one or two Lanipyrida allied to Pheiigodea have a 

 row of hcattert'd teeth ou the tirst joint. 



Ann. dc Mag. N. Wst. Ser. 9. Vol. iii. 22 



