Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Coleoptera of St. Helena. 313 



Helena — where it was taken by the late ^Ix. Bewicke in 1860, 

 and subsequently in considerable abundance by Mr. Melliss. 

 It is conspecific with the insect characterized by Blanchard in 

 the entomological portion of Dumont d'Urville's ' Voyage au 

 Pole Sud sur les Corvettes I'Astrolabe et la Zelee ' (p. 105, 

 pi. 7. f. 6) under the title of H. Saiictce-Heleme. 



Apart from its numerous and strictly generic characters, the 

 H. arator may at once be known from the two species of 

 Mellissius by being rather smaller, darker, brighter, and more 

 cylindric, by its clypeus being more rugose, and bisinuated 

 (instead of truncate) in front, by its prothorax being un- 

 sculptured, and by the punctures of its elytra being distributed 

 in regular stria?. Amongst other features, its antennas are 10- 

 (instead of 9-) articulate, its propygidium is furnished Avith 

 two long file-like divergent bands for the pui'pose of stridula- 

 tion by friction against the inner surface of the apex of its 

 elytra, and its wings are fully developed. 



Genus 19. Mellissius (nov. gen.). 



Corpus crassum, supra nudum, subtus pilis longis robiistis obsi- 

 tum : capiie triangulari, dypeo apice truncate, necnon ibidem atque 

 subito in genis (ante oculos) plus minus incrassato recurvo, fronte in 

 medio vol obsolete vel conspicue tuberculata : protlwrace magiio, 

 convexo, ad latera subaequaliter valde rotundato, in utroque sexu 

 nisi fallor (certe in masculo) simplici, nee antice impresso ; pro- 

 sternali lobo (inter coxas anticas) brevi, piloso : scutello semicirculari- 

 triangulari : alis minutis, obsoletis : instrument is st7-idulantibi(S aut 

 fere nullis, aut propygidium pliculis brevibus tubercuHsve trans - 

 versis ubique dense asperantibus. Antennce Q-arf^ : art°. l""" elon- 

 gate, robusto, subclavato, subflexnoso, 2^^° hvex\ transverse, 3^'° 

 minore breviore, -4*°, 5^°, 6'° gradatim paulo crescentibus, rcliquis 

 clavam magnam, foliatam, ovalem, 3-articulatam effieicntibus. 

 Lahrum clypeo absconditum. Mandihulce corneas, robusta), subtri- 

 angulares, concavae, apice incurvae obtusse, extus setis longissimis 

 instructae. MaxiJlarum Johns intei-niis obseletus, externns latus, 

 suboblongus, setisque longissimis ubique obsitus. Palporum maxil- 

 larium artic^dus idtimus obovato-oblongus, lahialiian subobovatus. 

 Menfuni (ligulam occultans) elongatum, subtriangulare, comeura, 

 pilis longissimis obsitum. Pedes fosserii, rebusti, suboequales : fibiis 

 anticis extus fortiter tridentatis, posteriorihus apice truncatis ciliatis : 

 tarsorum articido hasilari subtriangulari, ultimo injrjidcidis ccqualibus 

 armato. 



Tlie structural featm-es of the group which I have enunci- 

 ated above bring it into close proximity to the Australian 

 genera CheiropJatys and Isodon ; but a reference to the dia- 

 gnosis will show that it is abundantly distinct from them both. 

 Unlike them, also, it appears, at any rate in one of the two 



Ann. (£• Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. \\. 23 



