368 Mr. H. W.Bates on the Longicorn Coleoptera 



acute tips and recurved shape of the thoracic spines of Leiopus ; 

 so that this character is not wholly to be relied on. The flatness 

 of the thorax and the great slenderness of the antennae are per- 

 haps distinctive characters of more value. The species are pret- 

 tily variegated in the hues of the fine pubescence with which 

 they are clothed; and the group, whether treated as a section of 

 Leiopus or as an independent genus, appears to me a very natural 

 one*. 



§ 1. Thoracic spines very near to, or coincident with, the hind angles; 

 small, not curved posteriorly. 



1. Lepturges elegantulus, n. sp. 



L. subellipticus, depressus, carneo-fulvus, fusco variegatus : elytris 

 oblique et obtuse truncatis : femoribus posticis vix clavatis, tarsis 

 maxime elongatis. Long. 85 lin. S • 



Head pinkish tawny. Antennae the same, with the extreme 

 tips of all the joints dusky ; they are filiform, or rather stout, 

 and nearly three times the length of the body ( cJ ). Thorax with 

 the lateral spines nearly coincident with the hind angles, porrect 

 or standing out at right angles to the body; surface pinkish 



* The genus Leiojms is represented by three European species, one only 

 of which {L.nehulosus) I have been able to examine. Leconte enumerates 

 several North- American species, and, according to the characters he gives 

 of the genus, these seem to agree generically with the European forms ; 

 but one (L. angulatus of Georgia) would appear rather to belong to our 

 new genus Lepturges. The chief features enumerated by Leconte as dis- 

 tinguishing Leiopus from the many allied genera are — (1) the shortness 

 and conical shape of the ovipositor of the females (to which may be added 

 the uncleft tip of the apical ventral segment which forms part of itj, 

 (2) the rounded apex of the dorsal plate of the apical abdominal segment 

 in the males, (3) the naked antennae, and (4) the elongation of the basal 

 joint of the posterior tarsi. I propose to limit the genus to those species 

 which have, in addition to the above characters, the thorax of quadrate 

 outline and of more or less convex shape, with the lateral spines placed at 

 a distance from the hind angles, long, acute, and curved posteriorly. I did 

 not meet with a single species answering to this definition in the Amazons 

 region : the following, however, found in South-east Brazil, seems to be a 

 true Leiopus, with the exception of the antennae being long and slender, 

 and furnished with stiff hairs : — 



L. amoenulus. Oblongus, convexiusculus, tomento carneo-griseo laete varie- 

 gatus. Caput nigrum, vertice rufo. Antennae elongatae, tenues, setiferae, 

 rufo-piceae, articulis (duobus basalibus exceptis) apice nigris. Thorax 

 subquadratus, convexus, spinis lateralibus pone medium sitis, acutis, 

 recurvis; tomento carneo-griseo vestitus, maculis duabus dorsalibus 

 claviformibus nigris. Elytra apice breviter et obtuse truncata, modice 

 couvexa, punctata, nigricantia, utrinque plaga irregular! ab humero 

 usque ad apicem extensa grisea, nigro quadrimaculata, apud humeros 

 roseo tincta ornata. Corpus subtus rufo-piceum. Pedes picei, femori- 

 bus omnibus valde clavatis. Long. 2 lin. S • Hab. Rio Janeiro 

 Brasilia;. Coll. Bakewell, Bates. 



