neio Genus of Lamellicorn Beetles. 433 



destitute of palpi and ligula, the mentum forming a quadrate 

 plate covering the mouth. The terminal lobe of the maxilla 

 forms a comb composed of five or six long stout spines, and 

 the palpus is well developed and slender. The mandibles are 

 completely corneous, with a cutting-edge, and blunt at the 

 tip. Tlie prothorax is much broader in front than at its base, 

 where it is closely embraced by the shoulders of the elytra, 

 and the latter organs are very short (about equal in length to 

 the pronotum), narrow at the base and broad behind the 

 middle. They are highly convex, but from their form are 

 evidently fused and immovable, the wings being lost or 

 useless. The pronotum has a deep cavity in the middle, 

 produced in the form of a groove to the base, a short median 

 longitudinal ridge in front of it and two long ones on each 

 side, the inner pair parallel and the outer pair diverging to 

 the front angles. The remaining surface is also ridged, but 

 more tiuely. The elytra bear seven longitudinal ridges, in 

 addition to the inner and outer marginal ones, the first of the 

 seven produced by the division of the inner marginal costa, 

 the otlier six arising at the base, where they are longitudinal, 

 and strongly bent outwards about tiie middle. There are 

 feebler transverse ridges between these costas, most apparent 

 in the wide interstice between the first and second discoidal 

 costge. The legs are very stout, the femora thick and 

 hollowed above to receive the tibiae, which are very broad 

 and flat, the front ones truncate at the extremity, witii 

 two lateral teetii, the middle ones considerably longer than 

 the rest and having a minute tooth at the posterior edge 

 a little before the end. The front tarsi are slender and 

 normal, the four posterior ones extremely short and broad, 

 and the two basal joints imperfectly separated. There are 

 two spurs to each of the four posterior tibioe, but none arc 

 visible upon the front legs. Upon the posterior legs the inner 

 one is short and straight and the outer one more than twice 

 as long (little shorter than the hind tarsus), strongly curved 

 and acuminate. The front and hind coxse are contiguous, 

 the middle ones separated by a wide interval occu[)iL'd, not, as 

 in the Coprinse, by the anterior part of the metasternum, but 

 by the mesosternuin, which is twice the length of the meta- 

 sternum and divided from it by a straight suture. There are 

 six ventral segments visible beneath. The female has the 

 front tibia broader than tlie male and its extremity obtuse 

 internally, while in the latter it is sharply toothed. 



Tlie structure of the sternum is wliolly anomalous and 

 entirely different from that found eitiier in the Aphodiinaj or 

 Copriuaj, although simulating that of the latter. In most otlier 

 Ann.& Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 9. Vol. vi. 20 



