6 Memoirs on the Coleoptera 



Anophthalmtcs, there is, near each side of the scutellum at base, a 

 small ocellate puncture, from which a short stria proceeds posteriorly 

 as a rule. I have had occasion before (Mem. Col., VIII, p. 404) 

 to allude to peculiarities of this stria, in relation to the first regular 

 stria of the elytra in the Pogoninae. In rare instances there is no 

 puncture of this kind and sometimes there may be a puncture but 

 no attendant stria, as in some Evarthrids, but just now I desire 

 more especially to call attention to the relative positions of the 

 scutellar stria, as this short stria has been termed, and the first 

 true stria of the elytra. As stated of the Pogonids, it is the basal 

 part of the first regular stria which is deflexed outwardly to the 

 ocellate puncture at or near the basal end of the second stria; 

 this is also the invariable condition among the Platynids and most 

 of the Lebiids, but throughout the great subfamily Harpalinae 

 the first regular stria attains the base between the puncture and 

 the scutellum, and the scutellar stria extends posteriorly between 

 the first and second regular striae. 



I am unable to suggest anything relating to the etiology of this 

 singular scutellar stria and attendant ocellate puncture; they may 

 be the last remaining vestige of some useful structure in the early 

 stages of development; but, at the same time, some such remark ap- 

 plies to several other very permanent and characteristic structures 

 of the Coleopterous wing case, which we are accustomed to pass 

 over without speculative reasoning of any kind, such for example 

 as the series of coarse ocellate punctures along the sides of the 

 elytra, or the small oblique sinus near the tip of each elytron, the 

 constancy and persistence of which characters, at the present epoch 

 of their history, suggesting that they may be the remnants of soma 

 very important structural conditions prevailing during the earlier 

 evolutionary stages. 



Platynidius n. gen. 



The species of this genus are decidedly above the average of the 

 subfamily in size of the body and are singularly isolated in regard 

 to facies; they probably form the closest American analogue of 

 the true European Platynus, but seem to diff"er in many characters, 

 such as the longer prothorax, with broadly rounded basal angles, 

 and in the abnormal interstitial punctuation of the elytra. The 



