[Placed, with a mark of interrogation, as a synoDym of C. ne(/lecta, Hald., 

 in Le Conte's List, p. 6.] 



Genus Sericoda Kirhy. 



Lahrum transverse, sub-quadrangular : with the anterior angles rounded 

 Mandibles acute, incurved at the apex, not toothed ? Labium \mentum\ 

 emarginate with a minute tooth in the sinus. Palpi : maxillary 5-jointed ; 

 first joint very minute, second longer than the rest, sub-cylindrical, attenuated 

 at the basej third ob-conicalj fourth as long as the third, fusiform, trun- 

 cate; fifth very minute, retractile within the fourth : Labial 3-jointed j joints 

 nearly equal in length; the two first conical; the last fusiform, truncated. 

 Antennoe rather incrassated toward the apex ; scape^ incrassated ; 2nd joint 

 the shortest, and the third rather longer than the others. 



[15] ^of/y depressed, narrow. Head triangular. JEy^s large ?.nd promi- 

 nent. Neck very little constricted. Proihorax shorty channelled, widest 

 anteriorly ; with the angles rounded. Elytra obliquely truncated at the apex 

 and emarginate, so that internally they terminate in an acumen. Cubit 

 \tibia of 1st pair of legs] emarginate. Tarsi with the penultimate joint 

 entire. Claws single, not pectinated. 



The maxillary paipi of the genus here defined present an anomaly observed 

 in no other known coleopterous genus, they appear to be furnished with a 

 minute ^/i!A joint retractile within the fourth. In one of these palpi, in the 

 only specimen taken, this little accessory joint is not apparent, but in the 

 other it is distinctly seen emerging from the fourth joint, or rather, as this 

 last appears broken at the apex, it is uncovered. There is only one supposi- 

 tion that can reconcile this case to the general rule, that no coleopterous 

 maxillary palpus shall exceed four joints, namely — that this is an effort of 

 nature, by a reproduction, to restore the mutilated or^an so as to fulfil its 

 functions. Did the insect belong to the Crustacea or Aracknida this would 

 be a satisfactory explanation of the anomaly, but I do not recollect any 

 instance upon record of a genuine insect having reproduced a lost organ. I 

 thought it possible that the palpi of other Predaceous beetles might contain a 

 retractile joint, and this truncated apex seemed in some degree to favour the 

 idea, but I did not succeed in my endeavours to discover one. [Mr. Scudder 

 (Pro. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. xii. 99) describes the reproduction of lost limbs 

 in the Walking-Stick Jnsect (^Diapheromera femorata), specimens of which 

 we have seen in his cf.binet. We cannot but think that the case described 

 above by Mr. Kirby h an instance of reproduction.] 



* iScape. The first, and often most conspicuous joint of the atitenna, terminating be- 

 low in the bulb, which inosculates in the head, and acts the part of a rotula. [Defini- 

 tiona, Ac, p. xvii.] 



