1302 COLEOPTEEA 



Group-CRYPTOCEPH ALID M . 



Scaphodius, 



Chapuis. 

 (Sharp ; Ent. Hon. Mag., vol. xviii., p. 51.) 



Head small, received into, and exactly adapted to, the front of 

 the prothorax. Antenna short and rather slender, joints 3-6 small, 

 and so closely applied to one another as to be scarcely distinguish- 

 able ; joints 7-11 a good deal broader than the preceding ones, 

 Middle otpronotum prolonged behind, and its apex with a small deep 

 notch, adapted to the narrow small scutellum. The coxa all very 

 widely separated, the anterior ones very near the front edge of the pro- 

 sternum. The prosternum is flat along the middle, and the mesoster- 

 num is elevated in the middle so as bo form a short, very broad process, 

 connected with the prosternum by a quite straight transverse suture, 

 the two parts being so closely applied together as to appear one ; 

 this raised portion of the mesosternum is quite continuous in plane 

 with the metasternum, and thus the body along the middle line is 

 very consolidated : the first ventral segment is large, the second very 

 short, the sutures between first and second, and second and third 

 segments quite straight, the two following sutures strongly arcuate, 

 so that the third segment appears quite divided in the middle, fifth 

 segment large, with a broad shallow impression extending along the 

 middle. Pygidium exposed. 



1444. S. COmpactus, n.s. (Sharp ; Ent. Hon. Mag., vol. xviii., 

 p. 50.) Minutus, breviter ovalis, convexus, nitidus, niger, anten- 

 narum basi orisque partibus testaceis, pedibus anterioribus fusco- 

 testaceis, posterioribus piceis : prothorace subtiliter sparsim punc- 

 tato ; elytris striatis, striis punctatis. 



Long., 1-fmm. 



Labrum, palpi, and basal joints of the antennae pale-yellow, the 

 terminal four joints of the latter deeply infuscate. Prothorax at the 

 base continuous with the elytra, to which it is very closely applied, 

 the sides much narrowed in front, very distinctly margined, its sur- 

 face very shining, and bearing minute, scanty, somewhat elongate 

 punctures': elytra very distinctly striate, the strisB fine at the base, 

 distinctly punctured, the sutural angles rounded. 



Of this peculiar little insect I have seen only one individual, in 

 bad condition, which I obtained from the collection of the late 

 Andrew Murray. I believe it may be referred to the genus Scapho- 

 dius, recently established by Chapuis for the New Caledonian Crypto- 

 cephalus striaticollis : as, however, that insect is scarcely known to 

 entomologists, and I have not seen it myself, there is considerable 

 doubt whether these two insects will prove to be really congeneric ; 

 I think it, therefore, well to prefix the characters I have been able 

 to detect in the specimen before me, 



