the Family Rliysodidse. 77 



be assumed that collectors in that region have either over- 

 looked these insects or that the captures have not been 

 recorded ; and no Chinese species is known. 



Lacordaire and others have noticed that some of the cha- 

 racters of the Hhysodidee are similar to some possessed by 

 the Brenthidse ; yet while likening them to Trachelizus and 

 Hephehocerus Lacordaire says, '' quoique cette ressemblance 

 soit fortifi^e par des habitudes pareilles, ce n'est la, comme on 

 le pense bien, qu'une analogic lointaine." And if Rhysodes 

 crassiusculus is examined sideways the cheeks, or cephalic 

 lobes as I have termed them in this paper, will be seen to 

 project over the neck, somewhat like those of Iligonms cilo, 

 Lewis, figured in the Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool.vol. xvii. pi. xii. 

 fig. 10. Erichson has pointed out their similitude in some 

 respects to the Carabidee, and Crotch placed them in the 

 Adephaga. Imhoff, in 1856, placed Guides and Rhysodes in a 

 family he called Baculicornes ; and Leconte says that '^ La- 

 treille, who first proposed the genus Rhysodes, though he did 

 not describe it, had a clearer recognition of the true affinities 

 when he associated it with Cupes. This approximation has 

 not received the approval of other investigators, though I 

 hope to demonstrate its correctness " (North-American Col. 

 vol. V. 1875, p. 165). The Cupesidas as a family has many 

 characteristics similar to those of the Ptinid^, and for con- 

 venience in classification they should, I think, be placed next 

 to each other in our catalogues. Leconte says this is an 

 " error which has hitherto obscured the perception of the 

 affinity " of Cupes and Rhysodes. But Leconte's view will 

 not be entertained by students at this time, for excepting the 

 cephalic lobes they have nothing in common. Cupes in the 

 imago-state has the habits of a Ptinus and occurs in similar 

 situations ; both are usually nocturnal or crepuscular in their 

 wanderings ; but on one occasion, in August, near Hako- 

 date, I found Cupes running about on some old railings at 

 four o'clock in the afternoon. The larv^ of Cupes and Rhy- 

 sodes are, I believe, unknown ; but it is not in the least likely 

 they correspond with each other in habit. The images of the 

 Bhysodidse are well known as inhabiting the interiors of large 

 trees when in the later stages of decay, and seldom stray far 

 from their habitat. The Khysodidee have five-jointed tarsi 

 which are nearly equal in length, and the posterior coxa3 are 

 remarkably wide apart. Clinidium is an apterous genus, 

 and this want of wings perhaps accounts for the great depres- 

 sion in the region of the scutellum, which is one of its most 

 notable characters. Epiglymmius and Rhysodes are alate, and 

 as the humeral angles ot the elytra in the former are not pro- 



