Genera of the Cossonidce. 541 



44. THAUMASTOPHASIS (nov. gen.\ It is for an insect 

 which was captured at Crawler in Southern Australia, and 

 which has been communicated by Mr. Pascoe, that the 

 present genus is proposed ; and so remarkable is it in 

 many of its structural details that I could at first scarcely 

 persuade myself that it was a member of the Cossonidce 

 at all. But since at least three other forms (outside the 

 anomalous subfamily Onycholipides\ namely Aorus, Lipan- 

 cylus, and Xenocnema, have the tibial hook obsolete, 

 and are nevertheless veritable Cossonids, vne at any rate 

 of its most significant features may be regarded as not 

 altogether unparalleled even in the present department of 

 the Rhynchophora. And certainly in Thaumastophasis 

 the tibial uncus is strictly " obsolete" (and not completely 

 absent), for, when examined beneath a high magnifying 

 power, its presence may readily be detected in the anterior 

 pair, and I am not altogether sure that I cannot recognize 

 traces of it in the four posterior ones likewise (though I 

 will not be quite positive on this point) ; whilst the fact of 

 its front coxas being contiguous, and the intermediate ones 

 but barely separated, is almost in exact accordance with 

 what we observe in Pseudophlceophagus, and which is like- 

 wise unmistakeably approached in even Phlceophagus 

 proper. 



I need scarcely add that the affinities of Thaumasto- 

 phasis are extremely difficult; but, nevertheless, having 

 once decided that it is a veritable member of the present 

 family, I am inclined to think that it will be better to place 

 it near to Pseudophlceophagus than elsewhere, with which 

 (despite its many eccentricities) it agrees at all events in 

 the shape and proportions of its (rather thick and linear) 

 rostrum, and in its antennas being long and slender, as 

 well as in its body (although short) being parallel, seri- 

 ceous and convex, its metasternum much abbreviated, its 

 front coxae contiguous (or practically so) and the inter- 

 mediate pair but faintly apart, and in its feet (which how- 

 ever are considerably thicker) having their basal joint (like 

 the second one of the funiculus) appreciably lengthened, 

 and the third one (although very much more conspicuously 

 so) expanded and bilobed. 



In other particulars Thaumastophasis is remarkable for 

 its perfectly enormous eyes (which however are not ex- 

 tremely prominent), for its slender and acuminated club, 

 for its prothorax (which is small, and very much narrower 

 than the elytra) being slightly uneven, or as it were 



QQ2 



