HEMIPTEEA HETEEOPTERA AND HOMOJPTERA OP CEYLON. 73 



described, but wliicb are not at present in our collection. In 

 otters, tbe insects appear to belong to genera different from any 

 with which I could compare them ; and so large a number of new 

 genera have been proposed of late years, both in Heteroptera and 

 Homoptera, that it would be very unwise to create new genera 

 wholesale, until those already proposed have undergone a 

 thorough and much-needed revision, which at present I have no 

 time to attempt. I have, however, been obliged to propose a few 

 new genera myself in the present paper; and I wish to call 

 special attention to two extraordinary new forms among the 

 Heduviidse, Diceplialus and Formicoris. In Diceplialus the head 

 and thorax are segmented in such a manner as hardly to give it 

 the appearance of a genuine insect ; and the position of the ocelli 

 on the front of the hinder lobe of the head is also very remarkable. 

 Formicoris, on the other hand, is the exact counterpart of a black 

 spiny ant of the genus Hoplomyrmus, Grerst. (|j Polyrhachis^ 

 Smith) ; and no one who did not notice its structure would 

 imagine it to be anything else. 



Too little is known of the Hemipterous and Homopterous 

 Faunae of the countries nearest to Ceylon to allow the relations of 

 the Cinghalese Fauna to be discussed in the present paper. We 

 may regard it as likely that many of the Cinghalese species will 

 prove to be peculiar to the island, and that many of the smaller ones 

 especially will prove to be confined to very restricted localities. 



Much, no doubt, remains to be done before even the larger 

 species which inhabit Ceylon can be regarded as approximately 

 known, while it may reasonably be expected that the smaller 

 species will eventually be estimated by thousands rather than by 

 hundreds. I will now proceed to give a brief sketch of what has 

 already been done to systematize our knowledge of the Hemi- 

 ptera of the island. 



The first list was published by "Walker in Tennent's ' Ceylon ' 

 (vol. i. pp. 292-293, 2nd edit. 1859), and includes only 42 Ple- 

 teroptera and as many Homoptera. But although Walker was, 

 in general, a very good bibliographer, this list was probably com- 

 piled in haste, for it is extremely unsatisfactory, and is very far 

 from including all the species which had been described from Ceylon 

 at the time. Many of the names are MS., representing species 

 which Walker intended subsequently to describe, but did not, 

 and which cannot now be always identified with certainty; and 

 a few appear to have been erroneously recorded from Ceylon. 



LINN. JOTJEN. — ZOOLOGY, YOL. XSTIY. 6 



