BBENTHID^ ATSTD THEIR HABITS. 297 



tbe tree. A child set to watch for two days collected about a 

 dozen specimens ; and later on, solitary examples were obtained 

 in various places in Higo. This species is formed for traversing 

 the perforations of wood-borers, but not to the same degree of 

 eccentricity shown in the next genus, Gypliagogus. 



2. Oyphagogus siGisriPES, n. sp. (Plate XII. figs. 2, 3, 4.) 



Nigro-piceus, parcius tenuiterque hirtellus, rostro apice rufo, 

 thorace leevi parce et grosse punctato, antenuis lateraliter com- 

 pressis; elytris profunde striatis, striis fortiter profundeque 

 punctatis. 



Pitchy black ; head and thorax smooth and shining, latter with 

 large shallow scattered punctures ; neck and rostrum from behind 

 the antennae red ; thorax and elytra are clothed with a few long 

 grey hairs ; elytra with smooth costate striae, interstices rather 

 deeply punctate ; the humeral angle is smooth. Length 2|-3| 

 lines. 



This species is nearest to G. EricJisoni, Kirsch, which it re- 

 sembles in having the first article of the hind tarsus long. This 

 character completely separates it from C. Whitei, "Westwood, 

 Westivoodi, Parry, a,nd planifrons, Kirsch. 



I obtained this species in two provinces, Higo and Taraato ; 

 but, like the Zemioses, it was difficult to capture. In warm 

 weather, in May and June, it may be seen slowly pacing its way 

 over the trunks of trees with its legs widening out from the bodj, 

 and the thighs moving freely as the insect walks. But this is 

 not its usual position ; it is then only shifting its quarters. The 

 holes pierced 6 or 8 inches into the trees by small wood-borers 

 are its chief resort ; and for these cylindrical galleries they are 

 most admirably suited, by their exceptional structure. The 

 adaptation exhibited in this genus to a special mode of life is 

 wonderful, and seems to point to structural modifications sub- 

 sequent to, and more important than, that of the primitive 

 Platypi. The anterior femora are raised up by the insect tread- 

 ing on the sides of the perforated passages, and thus pressed into 

 the excavation in the forepart of the thorax, which the bulbiform 

 part exactly occupies : the middle femora, similarly raised, fit, 

 though indifferently, into the space between the thorax and the 

 elytra ; and the hind legs are stretched out behind, bringing the 

 swollen part of the thigh beyond the elytra. In this position 

 the short tibiae, in the hind legs not longer than the two basal 



