(58 [March, 



modifications, that it is often almost impossible to place tliem with 

 certainty in Clark's numerous genera, many of which will in future 

 have to be amalgamated. 



Theastg(eus maculicollis, n. sp. 



Broadly ovate, depressed, finely pubescent, flavous ; the vertex, antennse, the 

 breast and the tibiae and tarsi, black ; thorax yellow with two large black spots ; 

 elytra brownish, opaque, finely punctate-striate and pubescent, the sides fuscous. 



var. a. Elytra black ; var. b. The entire insect black. Length, 82 lines. 



Head granulate punctate, flavous, the vertex fuscous ; labrum black ; palpi 

 flavous, scarcely thickened ; antennte closely approached, two-thirds the length of 

 the body, black, the third joint the longest, the following joints slightly shorter ; 

 thorax about one-half broader than long, the sides nearly straight, slightly rounded 

 before the middle, the anterior angles subtuberculiform, the surface finely granulate, 

 flavous, clothed with very short yellowish pubescence, the middle of the disc fur- 

 nished with a raised, smooth, longitudinal, narrow space, the sides with a large 

 blackish spot and extending to either margin ; scutellum fuscous ; elytra finely and 

 closely punctate-striate, the interspaces slightly longitudinally convex, opaque, finely 

 transversely rugose, and clothed with extremely short greyish pubescence ; abdomen 

 and femora flavous, the posterior ones extending to the end of the abdomen in the 

 male, their apex black ; tibiae with a distinct spine ; claws bifid. 



Hah. : Brazils, St. Cathariua (Theresopolis, Rio Capivari). 



Thrast/ffoeus is one of the worst defined genera amongst tlie forty-two es- 

 tablished by Clark. It is described by this author as having unarmed posterior 

 tibiae, while the figure he gives seems to show a distinct spine ; the latter is the case 

 to my knowledge in all HalticidcE ; moreover, I have convinced myself by examining 

 Clark's type in the Bi'itish Museum (as already pointed out by myself in the Biologia 

 Centr. Americana), that a distinct spine is present. Again, von Harold has described 

 a species under the generic name of Thrasygaus, on account of Clark's supposed 

 definition (according to Harold), that the tibise were armed with a double spur; this 

 author has therefore misunderstood Clark's misleading description. Th. maculicollis, 

 of which I possess a good series, kindly given to me by the collector, Herr Fruh- 

 storfer, may be known by the nearly filiform palpi, the bifid claws, and the other 

 particulars pointed out ; the species seems to be a very variable one, and is nearly 

 similar in colour to T. scabrosus, CI., but is much larger and broader, and distin- 

 guished by the two large black thoracic spots in the typical form ; the variety b is 

 of entirely black colour, but difl^ers in no other way. 



MeTEIOTES METALIICTJS, 71. sp. 



Black ; above and the legs greenish-ieneous ; head and tliorax strongly punc- 

 tured ; elytra with the basal portion raised, finely punctate-striate; posterior tibia? 

 dentate at their outer margin. Length, 2 lines. 



Head remotely but strongly punctured, metallic greenish-seneous, the labrum 

 black ; antenna? black, half the length of the body, the third, fourth and fifth joints 

 elongate, of nearly equal length, the following joints shorter and thicker ; thorax 

 one-half broader than long, the sides perfectly straight, the angles acute, the disc 



