Genera and S2>ecl('s of Colcoptcra. 19 



elusions ill regard to the limits or characters of natural groups from 

 the examination of the species of a particular region only. M. 

 (lu Val excludes SyJvanu.^ and the cognate genus Nausibius from 

 Cucujidifc because their tarsi have not the short basal joint which 

 the remainder of the European members of this family possess ; and 

 to this character he attaches an importance of the highest order, so 

 that for him none others are Cucujidaj ; but if we look to the well- 

 known genus Pahvstes (and still more to Ipsaphes just described), 

 to Platisus, or to Scalidia and Ancistria, where the basal joint far 

 exceeds in size and length those which follow, we shall see at once 

 the utter futility of this character. I think, too, it shows how 

 cautious it is necessary to be before we take what may prove 

 to be a mere technical character for one of real natural import- 

 ance. The division of the Cucujida3 according to the difference of 

 number of the tarsal joints in the two sexes is also objectionable. 

 Pristoscdis* , which can scarcely be distinguished otherwise from 

 Pcediacus, is pentamerous in both, and would therefore be placed by 

 M. du Val with Monotomince t. With regard to Synoemis, we must, 

 I think, for the present consider it an isolated genus. The number 

 of these insects, which conceal themselves under bark and in the 

 axillce of leaves, is probably enormous. They are generally minute, 

 and are not often sought for, and we must therefore expect to find 

 a form turning up now and then whose affinities are uncertain. 

 The posterior tibia) and tarsi of Pnstoscelis (accurately described by 

 Mr, Wollaston, but as to the tarsus most inaccurately represented 

 in the figure) are to a certain extent repeated in Synoemis ; it has 

 also the hooked inner maxillary lobe of that genus. I owe this 

 most interesting form to Mr. Bowring, who took it in considerable 

 abundance at Penang, in the axillge of the leaves of a species of 

 Pandayius. 



Synoemis pandani . (PL III. fig. 8.) 



S. fusco-testaceus, nitidus ; prothorace vage punctate ; elytris punctato- 

 striatis. 



Hah. Penang. 



Elongate, very narrow and depressed, chestnut-brown, subnitid; 

 head nearly plane, oblongo-subquadrate, a little broader behind the 

 eyes, sparingly punctured ; antennre remote from the eyes, short, the 

 basal joint thickened, as long as the next two together, the remainder 



* This name has been preoccupied by Dr. Leconte for a genus of Basytints. 

 t Monotonia, according to M. du Val, has 5-jointcd tarsi, and he tlierefore 

 places it with the Cucujidic. 



