142 Mr. G. J. Arrow on some 



II. — A Revuion of the Genus Lycomedes and its Allies. 



Tliree of the six species hitlierto assigned to Lycomedes 

 are Central American, while of the ten members of tiie group 

 now known to me all appear to be confined to the mountain 

 chain between Nicaragua and Ecuador ; for, although 

 L, Afniszechi, Thoms., was recorded as from Mexico, it has 

 only since been found (by Belt) at Chontales in Nicaragua, 

 and from the restricted range of the other species and the 

 describer's failure to give a precise habitat for the original 

 specimen, this may be regarded, I think, as only an approxi- 

 mation to tlie actual home of the species. 



My attention was first called to the necessity for a revision 

 of the genus by Mons. Ren^ Oberthiir, who pointed out to 

 me that the form assigned by Bates in the Central-American 

 monograph to Lycomedes Mniszechi, Thorns., was distinct 

 from that species, of which the type is in the Oberthiir collec- 

 tion. M. Oberthiir has since kindly sent me all his specimens 

 of the group, and as I have thus had before me the types of 

 all the described species (all but the one just mentioned being 

 in our own collection), it has seemed to me advisable, while 

 re-characterizing the Central-American forms, to tabulate the 

 distinctive features of all. In so doing I have found all the 

 species range themselves into two very distinct series, for 

 which two generic names are already in existence. 



'J'he typical species of Lycomedes [L. lieichei) was described 

 in 1844 by De Breme^ and three years later Burmeister pub- 

 lished a description of an insect which he regarded as 

 De Breme's species and which he received from Dupont with 

 the unpublished name of luridipennis. Another large male 

 he saw in the Hope collection, and to this he attached the 

 name Spodistes luridipennis, Burm., under which he originally 

 described the species, but substituted that of Lycomedes Lieichei 

 before publication. Upon examination of the last-mentioned 

 specimen, 1 have found that it is entirely distinct from 

 L. Eeichei, and very near, but not the same as, that described 

 shortly afterwards by Thomson. These two, with the two 

 others figured in the ' Biologia Centrah-Americana,' form a 

 generic group for which it will be convenient to retain the 

 name Spodistes. 



In tabulating the characters of the subdivisions of the 

 Dynastidffi, Lacordaire has distinguished the Agaocephalina?, 

 to which these insects belong, by the absence of a prosternal 

 process. In Lycomedes proper this is really strongly devc- 



