Mr. A. Murray on Coleoptera from Old Calabar. 39 



lineola nigra oblique posita in angulo postico, antice recto, 

 postice leviter bisinuato versus latera, in dorso obsolete 

 costata ; scutello semirotundato ; elytris mediocriter punc- 

 tatis, cinerej^, lineolis leucopliajis seepe obliquis versus 

 apicein, lineolaque fusco-nigra inti*a humerum basi j pedibus 

 brunneis, tarsis pallidis. 

 Long. 9^ lin., lat. 3^ lin. 



Densely clothed with a uniform fawn- and ash-coloured pile, 

 with a brownish-black linear patch at the external base of tlie 

 thorax, continued on to the base of the elytra for a short space ; 

 head longitudinally carinate in front, and sulcate behind; thorax 

 straight in front, slightly bisinuate behind towards the sides, 

 obsoletely costate on the back ; scutellum large and semi- 

 rounded ; elytra moderately punctate, with some paler oblique 

 lines towards the apex ; legs brown, tarsi pale. 



Very rare. Only three specimens received. 



Prosopocera. 



This genus is another of the remarkable evidences of close 

 affinity between the species of Old Calabar and Brazil. It is 

 undoubtedly the representative of the Brazilian genus Onci- 

 deres, one of the new species now described (P. Fryi) having 

 the appearance and yellow-flecked colouring of that genus in 

 a more marked degree than any of the hitherto described spe- 

 cies. It might be a question, indeed, whether it and P. picti- 

 ventris^ which most resemble Onci'dcres, should not be made 

 a distinct genus : but I think it would be an error, as indi- 

 cating a greater departure from the other Prosopoceras than 

 really exists. Not having seen the males of all the sijecies, I 

 cannot say whether they have a horn on tlie forehead or not ; 

 'but I am inclined to think that in the majority of cases it will 

 be found that they have not ; for although the horn appears 

 to be always present in the Senegal species, P. cornifrons^ 

 even there it is of variable dimensions ; and in the Old-Calabar 

 equivalent of P. cornifrons (P. ocellata)^ although sometimes 

 present, it is absent in the great majority of male specimens ; 

 and in none of the other species have I seen any ; and although 

 I have supposed them to be all females, some of the specimens 

 have certainly longer antennae than the others, and may perliaps 

 be males. With regard to this horn, it is a noteworthy point, 

 con-oborative of the affinity of the genus with Oncideresj that 

 various species of the latter have likewise projecting horns on 

 the forehead. In them the horns project, one on each side, 

 from the inner side of the base of the antennas ; while in Pro- 

 sopocera it is a single horn, projecting in the middle, lower 



