348 Mr. F. P. Pascoe on some new or Uttle-hnown 



Peaonetha [Lamiidae]. 

 Blanchard, Yoy. an Pole Sud, iv. p. 292 (Prioneta). 



Praonetha subfasciata. 



P. breviter subcylindrica, fusca, sparse fulvo piibescens ; prothorace sub- 

 transverso ; elytris medio fascia lata grisea (fere obsoleta) instriictis. 



Hab. Cambodia. 



Shortly subcylindrical^ brown, tbinly covered witb short fulvous 

 hairs ; head convex in front, scarcely as broad as the prothorax ; pro- 

 thorax subtransverse, the anterior and posterior margins nearly equal, 

 the sides rounded, sparingly punctured ; scutellum rather broad, 

 rounded behind ; elytra short, subparallel, irregularly pimctured, with 

 a few black shining granules, principally at the base and along the 

 suture, a broad but obscurely defined gi-eyish band occupying the middle 

 third; legs robust; antennse longer than the body, pubescent, the 

 basal joint opaque brown, nearly glabrous; body beneath reddish 

 brown, slightly pubescent, second abdominal segment densely covered 

 with short hairs at the sides. Length 5 lines. 



In many species of this genns the pile is so thin that the derm is 

 seen beneath, thus producing an obscureness and intermixture of 

 colours very difficult to define ; the broad although somewhat in- 

 distinct band, however, occupjdng just the middle third of the 

 elytra, in conjunction with its snb transverse prothorax and more 

 cylindrical form, will readily distinguish this species. As in 

 SymphyJetes pubiventris (ante, p. 339), one of the sexes — probably 

 the male — has the second abdominal segment densely covered 

 with short hairs. Praonetha, Blanch., is only distinguished from 

 Pterolophia, Newm., by the absence of the crest at the base of the 

 elytra — a very slight character, which, as is expressly stated by 

 Newman, " is sometimes scarcely apparent." Pterolophia, however, 

 appears to me to embrace two forms : — the typical one, including 

 bigibbera, varia, dispersa*, (fee, which are robust, middle-sized in- 

 sects (5-9 lines), somewhat cylindrical or even compressed; and less 

 robust and smaller species (2-2| lines) and as decidedly depressed. 

 For the latter I have already proposed the genus Ropica. Of course 

 there is nothing satisfactory in such characters when used for the 

 purpose of generic distinction ; but in this and in many other cases 

 it is doubtful if any more important ones can be found, capable of 

 embracing a large, or even moderate, number of species. With 

 regard to those names I do not propose any change here : Pterolo- 



* The two latter were described by me in the ' Ent. Trans.,' under tlie generic 

 name of Notolophia. I beheve there is no such genus : it seems to have been a 

 slip of the pen for Pterolophia. Prioneta is probably a typographical error. 



