Genera of the Cossonidce. 549 



of being bald, is more or less besmeared with mud-like 

 scales.* 



56. [MiMUS (Fahraeus, Ofvers. Vet. Ak. Fork. 283. 

 1871). Not having been able to procure a type of the 

 species (from Southern Africa) for which the present was 

 established by Fahraeus, I know nothing whatever con- 

 cerning either its structure or its affinities, the former, 

 if we may judge from the diagnosis, being of the most 

 commonplace description, and such as might apply equally 

 to two-thirds of the entire Cossonidce ; whilst so far as the 

 latter are concerned, not a syllable is recorded by Fahraeus 

 except that the group represents a new " tribe " of the 

 family. But why this should be the case it is impossible 

 to conjecture, seeing that his description does not indicate 

 so much as a single structural anomaly. Since he speaks 

 however of the elytra as sulcate (no allusion being made 

 to punctured stride), and the body as black and closely 

 sculptured, I am inclined (on the merest conjecture) to 

 place the genus next to Psilosomus (from Ceylon and the 

 Malayan peninsula), in which the elytra are emphatically 

 " sulcated," and the punctation is altogether dense.] 



57. AMOKPHOCERUS (Schonherr, Cure. Disp. Meth. 

 329. 1826). The South- African genus Amorphocerus, for 

 types of which (the A. rufipes, Boh., and the A. zamice, 

 Boh.) I am indebted to Mr. Pascoe and Mr. Janson, has 

 many peculiarities of its own, one of which, namely the 

 construction of its tibiae, would rather tend to remove it 

 from the present family. These latter are decidedly 

 abnormal for the Cossonida, being not only unusually 

 broad, triangular, and compressed, but with their apical 

 hook (understanding that almost universal appendage as 

 a prolongation of the outer angle) obsolete. It is true that 

 a long and curved spine is conspicuous, but then it does 

 not proceed from the external angle (which is merely sur- 

 mounted with a very short and straight spinule) ; and also 



I think it is far from unlikely that the insect which forms the type of 

 the genus Psilosomus is the one which was described by Mr. Walker (Ann. 

 Nat. Hist. iv. 218, 1869) under the name of " Cossonus? hebes ; but since 

 his diagnosis is contained in ten words, and is unaccompanied by a single 

 remark, it is impossible without an examination of the type itself to decide 

 this point. But in any case the generic characters have not hitherto been 

 defined ; and I have thought it worth while therefore, even if the species 

 should prove eventually to be the one alluded to by Mr. Walker, to place 

 them on record. 



