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XL. Synopsis of the Coleopterous Genus Cei'apterus. By John O. Westwood, 



Esq., F.L.S., 8fc. 



Read June 16th, 1840. 



X HE dlscoveiy of a species in a hemisphere where the group to which it 

 belongs has not hitherto been supposed to be indigenous, is always interest- 

 ing, even if only considered with reference to the geographical distribution 

 of the objects of nature. When, however, as in the case of the insect about 

 to be brought before the notice of the Linnean Society, the species dis- 

 covered belongs to a most anomalous tribe, and is itself one of the most 

 anomalous of its tribe ; and, moreover, when it is considered that the group 

 is one which has received great attention on account of the rarity of the in- 

 sects belonging to it, two monographs of them having appeared in the Trans- 

 actions of the Society, I am sure I need offer no apology for submitting to the 

 Society the present Synopsis. 



The family Paussldce, of which at the present time about forty-five distinct 

 species are known, has hitherto been met with only in the Eastern hemisphere, 

 the species being chiefly African or Asiatic ; whilst New Holland has furnished 

 two species, and the Balkan Mountains in Turkey another. Mr. Miers, whose 

 botanical treasures have already so much occupied the attention of the So- 

 ciety, has been so fortunate as to bring home an insect of this family from 

 South America belonging to the genus Cerapterus, but evidently possessing 

 subgeneric characters distinct from those of the known speeies of that genus. 



In my Monograph of this family I described three species of this genus : 

 C. latipes and C. MacLeaii, which I knew only from the works of Swederus 

 and Donovan, and C. Horsfieldii ; having, however, no absolute means of deter- 

 mining whether the latter is distinct from C. latipes. In the second volume 

 of the Transactions of the Entomological Society, I described another species 

 from the collection of M. Gory of Paris, which, judging from the acknowledged 

 inaccuracy of Donovan in minute points of organization, I then regarded, but 



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