174 Mr. A. Murray on Coleopt era from Old Calabar. 



Taracta Fryi. 



Brunneus, subnitidus, punctatus ; thorace disco fere 

 Isevi j elytris punctato-striatis, prope suturam 

 fere Isevibus. y 



Long. 1 J lin., lat. | lin. 



Madder-brown ; club of the antennae and tarsi 

 fawn-colpured. Slightly shining, somewhat ob- 

 scured by the punctuation and a slight pubescence ; the punc- 

 tuation deepest and roughest on the sides, very fine on the disk 

 of the thorax and near the suture of the elytra. Prothorax with 

 sides gently rounded, widest a little before the middle ; posterior 

 angles obtuse, anterior somewhat acute, with the point rounded. 

 Scutellum with the apex rounded, smooth. Elytra punctate- 

 striate, the strise fading off towards the suture, but under the 

 glass very coarse towards the sides ; a series of fine stiff pale 

 hairs along the strise and on the pygidium. Underside of head 

 finely papillose, rest of body finely punctate. Legs with tibise 

 simple ; tarsi very short. 



Named after the well-known entomologist Mr. Alexander 

 Fry. One specimen is all that I have seen. 



Platychora, Er, 



(Subgenus Pherocopis, Thomson, Arch. Ent. ii. 42.) 



M. Thomson, in describing the genus Pherocopis, which he 

 made for the following species, says it ought to be placed next to 

 Lordites. If it were a good genus, however, it is further removed 

 from Lordites than even Axyra is. But in truth at most it is only 

 a subgenus of Platychora. The only respects in which it differs 

 from any of the characters of that genus are, the form of the 

 emargination of the labrum and the mentum. In the African 

 species the latter has not a tooth in the middle, while in the 

 South-American species it is bisinuate and has a central projec- 

 tion. That is the only difference ; and the points of agreement 

 are of the more importance inasmuch as both forms differ from 

 those which come nearest to them. The antennae are peculiar in 

 having all the articles from the third to the club not minute, 

 and of uniform size and thickness. The tarsi are of medium 

 size, but in both the fourth article is nearly as large as the 

 third — a remarkable deviation from the usual proportions in the 

 Nitidulidse, of which an almost invariable character is that the 

 fourth article is minute, often almost invisible. The maxillse 

 and the ligula and palpi of both are identical, and the flatness 

 of the body and the general appearance and facies are also the 

 same. 



I consider them two sections or subgenera of one genus. 



