Rev. H. Clark on Species of Phytophaga. 139 



which are generally more or less imperfect, to examine and 

 compare, or of which only a limited number of examples are to 

 be obtained and compared ? 



By these observations I by no means wish to throw any doubt 

 on any determinations which have been made, or to deny that 

 there are well- determined fossil species, but merely to show the 

 necessity of extreme caution in determining fossil bones as well 

 as recent ones, and to point out that, in some cases at least, it 

 is not sufficient to compare a recent skull, much less a fossil 

 one, with one entire skull, and then determine whether it is a 

 new or an extinct species — more especially as such abstruse 

 questions as the antiquity of Man and other theoretical questions 

 have been attempted to be settled by the results of such exami- 

 nations. 



The skulls of certain genera seem much more liable to vary 

 than those of others. They vary in most genera much more 

 than was expected before series of the skulls of each species 

 were collected and compared. It must be observed that these 

 variations of the skull do not in the least prove the want of 

 distinctness between species, but only show that the bones are 

 as liable to vary as any other part of the body. Nor does it in 

 the least detract from the importance of studying the bones in 

 connexion with the external characters. 



In some genera, where a very similar kind of colour is com- 

 mon to all the species, and where the colours seem to show an 

 inclination to run into one another, as in the four species of 

 Helictis from Java, Nepaul, China, and Formosa, the examina- 

 tion of the skulls at once shows that the species are really dis- 

 tinct, and may be divided by the skull into two most distinct 

 groups. 



XVI. — Descriptions of Species of Phytophaga received from Pulo 

 Penang or its Neighbourhood. By the Rev. Hamlet Clark, 

 M.A., F.L.S. 



Subfam. Eumolpidse. 



Genus Corynoeides. 



Generi Corinodi (Hope, Marshall, " Corynodor. recensio," Linn. 

 Sec. Journ. Zool. vol. viii. p. 25) valde affine. Caput verticale. 

 Oculi pene circulares (vix oblongi) et ad latus baud sinuati sed exea- 

 vati. Antennce ut in genera Corynode positse, sed valde elongatiores ; 

 in $ , corporis dimidium longitudine superantes ; iu c? , corporis 

 longitudinem pene attinentes : in J articulus l""''* globosus, 2^""^ 

 brevis ; ceteri elongati, subcylindriei, ad apices incrassati ; in $ 

 articuli breviores, et 7-11 compresso-latiores (baud ut in Corynode 

 latissimi, et pene transversi, sed elongatiores), formam articulorum 



