84. Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar. 
from the pen of Olivier and Fabricius and other authors of their. 
date; and although tolerable figures are sometimes given by 
Olivier, it is not surprising, considering the strong family re- 
semblance which prevails in all, that their short descriptions 
should have left entomologists very much in the dark and almost 
entirely dependent on tradition for a knowledge of the species 
intended by them. 
Before entering on the description of the species from Old 
Calabar, I must ask leave to add to the entomological termino- 
logy an expression to enable me to deal without periphrasis 
with the anterior and posterior extremities of the Bostrichide. 
Every one who reads this knows that this group is composed of 
cylindrical insects which have the thorax terminating in an 
overhanging straight or excavated or more or less vertical front, 
and the elytra terminating either in a rapid, steep rounding off, 
an abrupt, oblique, or even vertical slope, or an actual excava- 
tion. ‘These abrupt terminations at each end of the body I 
_ propose to call truncatures,—viz. the thoracic truncature and 
“the apical truncature of the elytra. The word does not much 
matter ; as Prof. Owen says, it is a mere tool to do the work. 
What I want is something to express in a word the declining 
abrupt termination at either end of the Bostrichide. Where 
it does not occur, of course it will not be used. 
1. Apate terebrans, Pallas, Spicilegia Zool. Ins. p. 7; Oliv. 
Ent. iv. No. 77, pl. 1. fig. 4. 
(A. barbifrons, Dupont, De}. Cat.) 
Found both in Brazil and Africa, and distinguished from 
other species by its size and a large tuft of yellow hair and 
two small projecting triangular teeth on the forehead. The 
elytra are marked with punctures running into each other, and 
making a series of rather fine rugosities or slight reticulations. 
I have no doubt tradition is correct in assigning this insect 
to Olivier’s terebrans, although his figure represents an insect 
considerably shorter. This we may assume to be an error in 
the drawing, because we know no other species which is so like 
the drawing as this, and the description in the text corresponds 
with that of the species. 
I have wasted a good deal of time in carefully comparing the 
African and Brazilian specimens, with the expectation or desire 
of finding some difference between them ; but have been unable 
to find anything that is constant or could be called specific. As 
a rule, the African specimens are more distinctly and deeply 
marked, and have a deeper fovea round the scutellum; but 
sometimes there is no such difference, or even the reverse occurs. 
