Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar. 173 



and the first article of it rather long. Thorax transverse ; apex 

 deeply emarginate ; base nearly straight, with the lateral margins 

 slightly reflexed. Elytra about twice and a half the length 

 of the thorax^ truncate at the apex, leaving the pygidium and 

 the extremity of the penultimate segment of the abdomen ex- 

 posed. Legs short ; tarsi short ; first three articles in all the 

 feet dilated ; claws simple. No prosternal keel, although a slight 

 thickening between the coxae of the two anterior legs. " 



It will depend upon the weight which is given to the dilated 

 tarsi as a sectional character whether we should place this spe- 

 cies among the Nitidulinse or Strongylini. I do not think that 

 the species composing these two sections can be definitely sepa- 

 rated by any characters which can be devised. The two extremes 

 [Nitidula and Strongylus) are distinct enough, but they pass 

 into each other by imperceptible degrees; indeed, as already 

 said, there is actually a middle group, intermediate between them, 

 which, I think, is entitled to a distinct place, and which passes 

 by degrees into the two sections on each hand of it. The types 

 of that middle group are Stelidota and Lordites ; and it passes 

 into the group of which Nitidula proper is the type through 

 the present species and Axyra, to which this is certainly allied ; 

 while, on the other hand, Lordites passes into the group of 

 Strongylini, of which Camptodes may be taken as the type, 

 through GaulodeSy jEthina, and Amphici^ossus, 



I have great faith in facies as a guide to affinities ; but I have 

 scarcely less faith in the texture of the integument. Take the most 

 anomalous creature that the mind of man could conceive or the 

 vagaries of nature produce, and according to the texture of its 

 integument will its affinities be found to be. When the Archao- 

 pteryx macrura was first found, and the question was whether it 

 was a bird or a reptile, and before Owen had pronounced it a 

 bird, I remember saying, on the strength of the permanence of 

 the characters of the epidermis, that from the feathers alone I 

 was sure it must be a bird. The epid'ermis seems to retain its 

 character longer than any other part of the body; the stripes 

 remarked on by Darwin in horses, tigers, and other apparently 

 most unkindred quadrupeds are long persistent evidence of 

 community of descent. The same thing is very apparent in 

 Coleoptera. Give any entomologist a microscopic fragment of 

 the elytron of a Cicindela, and he will tell that it belongs to 

 that group. Try him with a bit of a Colymbetes, and he will 

 tell its place with equal certainty. In this new genus of uncer- 

 tain seat, Taracta, which has the dilated tarsi of Lordites, I 

 interrogate the chitinous texture of its covering, and I find a 

 certain resemblance to Axyra. The insect undoubtedly stands 

 near that genus. 



