2 1 8 COLEOPTERA 



postice latioribus, obsolete subtilissime punctulatis, nigris, basi testaceo, 

 singulo elytro ad apicem oblique arcuatim truncate. Abdomine nigro- 

 piceo, lateribus subtilissime punctulato, segmentis primo secundoque ad 

 apicem testaceis. 



Long., 3^ lin. ; lat., f lin. 



Christchurch (Mr. Wakefield). 



NOTE. This species also occurs in the North Island. 



I found five specimens near Whangarei Heads. 



Group BRONTID^E. 



Maxilla exposed. Ligiila entire or a little emarginate. Antenna 

 filiform, slender, at least half as long as the body, their joints cylindrical, 

 the basal elongate. Tarsi pentamerous in both sexes, their first joint 

 very short. 



Dryocora. 



Pascoe; Proc. Entom. Soc,, xi., 17 February, 1868. 



(Cucujo affinis). Palpi acuti. Prothorax apicem versus gradatim 

 angustior, lateribus integris. Prosternum latum. Metasternum elonga- 

 tum. Tarsi $ et 4-articulati. 



383. D, howittii, Pascoe; Proc. Entom. Soc., xi., 17 February, 

 1868. Ferruginea, nitida; elytris subtiliter lineato-punctatis. 



Long., 4 lin. 



New Zealand. 



Mr. Pascoe exhibited a beetle from New Zealand (probably from 

 Otago), which he regarded as the type of a new genus of Cucujida, and 

 which he proposed to describe under the nam'e of Dryocora howittii. 

 He remarked that members of some of the clavicorn families were well 

 known to have tarsi with varying numbers of joints ; or when the 

 normal number were present, the basal joint was very small or almost 

 obsolete, as in many Cucujida ; or the penultimate was very small or 

 almost obsolete as in the Nitidulida. In Cucujiis the tarsi were hetero- 

 merous in the male and pentamerous in the female, but in Dryocora, 

 which in other respects was allied to Cucujus, the tarsi were tetramerous 

 in both sexes, the basal joint being suppressed. 



Organic modifications of this kind, and the exaggerations of form of 

 some one organ which in certain groups was found to be subject to 

 unusual modification as the antennse in Panssidcs, the eyes of Hippo- 

 psince, the pronota of Membracidce, &c. seemed to Mr. Pascoe "to point 

 to a law of aberration only to be explained on the hypothesis of the 

 derivative origin of species." 



Dendrophagus. 



Schosnh. ; Lacord. Hist, des Ins. Coleop.^ Tom. ii., p. 407. 



Mentum strongly transversal, sinuated in front. Ligiila horny, 

 feebly hollowed in front, its anterior angles strongly prolonged. External 



