460 Mr. F. P. Pascoe on some Australian Colydiida?. 



XXXIII. — On some Australian Colydiidse. 

 By Francis P. Pascoe, F.L.S., &c. 

 For a long time all the Australian Colydians have been referable, 

 with any certainty, to three genera only — Beretaphrus, Bothrideres, 

 and Pycnomerus ; more recently Uhnotus, Meryx*, and Bitomaf 

 have been added in the pages of this Journal. 



Beretaphrus was proposed by Mr. Newman in the ' Entomologist,' 

 p. 403, for four Australian insects : subsequently Mr. Janson having 

 called tho author's attention to a note of Erichson's in the < Natur- 

 geschichte der Insekten Deutschlands,' a second notice was given in 

 the ' Zoologist ' for 1855, App. ccix., preceded, however, by a now and 

 elaborate generic description, and accompanied by certain critical re- 

 marks from the pen of Mr. "Wollaston, who, it is perhaps necessary 

 to state, had but a single example of Beretaphrus fossus before him J. 

 The result of Mr. Newman's second notice was to eliminate (but 

 apparently with reluctance §) two out of the four original species 

 (ilhisus and vittatus), which he referred, with the Berlin Professor, to 

 Bothrideres. B. puteus, unknown to Erichson, Mr. Newman retained 

 in Beretaphrus ; and in this he was followed by M. Lacordaire, who, 



* Ulonotics had been described as an Asida, and Meryx was always supposed 

 to be Indian. 



t It will be necessary, however, to form a new genus for the reception of the 

 Australian species. 



\ In the description, six abdominal segments are mentioned, no doubt a slip 

 of the pen, as no Colydian, I believe, has more than five. As Mr. Wollaston 

 institutes a comparison between Beretaphrus and Thorictus, I may observe that 

 my friend M. de Baran, of Paris, some time ago suggested to me the affinity of 

 the latter to another genus of the Colydiidaj — Aglenus. 



§ Mr. Newman, while apparently deprecating the tendency of Mr. Wollaston's 

 " characters " to limit the genus, is inclined " rather " to " the extension than 

 the restriction of generic divisions, on account of the encumbrance to science 

 caused by the multiplicity of names." I may here observe that Beretaphrus 

 was, when it was first proposed, referred to a "natural order — Ptinites," in 

 company with Epiteles contumax, which belongs to the derides and is in fact a 

 Cylidrus, and Synercticus heteromerus, which Mr. Newman thought bore " a con- 

 siderable resemblance to the Clerites, and" that "perhaps a more rigid investi- 

 gation of the mouth " might even " establish their [viz. the two specimens de- 

 scribed] claim to a station in that order." Except by Erichson, in his ' Bericht ' 

 (1842), I believe this genus has remained unnoticed and unknown. A few days 

 ago, however, at the British Museum, I came upon the identical pair which served 

 Mr. Newman for his description, and found it to be the same with Aposyla 

 (ante, p. 325), a genus probably allied to Calcar, among the Tenebriomdee. 

 Aposyla must therefore give way to Synercticus. The species, however, are 

 different, the one described by me being narrower, with the prothorax broader 

 behind, without any traces of elevated lines on the elytra, the punctures finer, &c. 



