536 Mr. G. J. Arrow on some 



and a rather lono; tapering postcoxal process. The middle 

 coxfe are separated hy a thin Litnina and the hind coxre are 

 contiguous. Between middle and hind coxae the metasternuni 

 is raised, forming a trapezoidal area. The pjgidium is com- 

 pletely ventral, and between it and the metasternum only 

 two ventral segments are distinguishable in the middle, but 

 five or six immovably united can be counted at the sides. 

 The ventral surface is coarsely punctured. 



The most remarkable feature of all is found in the tarsi of 

 three joints only, any less number than the coleopterous 

 maximum of five being of extreme rarity among the Lamelli- 

 cornia. Another abnormal genus of Aphodiidse {PJiycoclms) 

 has, however, tarsi of only two visible joints. The articula- 

 tions in Stereomera are very close, and can allow very little, 

 if any, movement. Similarly modified tarsi are found in a 

 few Cetoniidas [Trichoplus and Callinomes) living in ants' 

 nests. Stereomera has in all probability the same habit, for 

 the domestic animals of ants, like those of man, are great 

 violators of the proprieties of systematics. 



Although the species of this little group first described was 

 placed by Westwood among the Aphodiidae, subsequent 

 writers — Harold and Fairmaire — have treated them as 

 Copridae. There is no justification for this view except 

 Pascoe's inaccurate description of one of the species, called 

 by him Antrisis Saundersi, although congeneric with 

 lihyparusj Westwood, and, 1 believe, identical with the later- 

 described R. approximanSj Fairmaire. Pascoe described the 

 hind coxai as widely separated, being evidently deceived by 

 the separation of the femora, which are inserted at a distance 

 from the tips of the coxse, the latter being really contiguous. 

 Mistaking the inturned pygidium for a ventral segment, he 

 called the abdomen six-jointed, whereas there are only five 

 joints. His figure is also misleading, representing the insect 

 as much too short. In my opinion these forms constitute a 

 link between the Aphodiidse and Trogidge. The abdomen of 

 five visible segments, the simple legs without teeth or spines, 

 and the conformation and sculpture of the surface connect 

 them with the Trogidte, the dilatation of the clypeus, the 

 prominence of the abdomen, the position of the pygidium, 

 «&c., exclude them from that family, and the closely approxi- 

 mated coxa^ and 9-jointed antenna? are features common to 

 both those families but foreign to the Coprida\ 



I'he list of RJiypari at present described amounts to a 

 dozen, but it will no doubt become very much longer. A 

 third of the number are from Borneo, but the distribution 

 is very wide, extending from Sud-Est Island (Lonisiade 



