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A EEVISION OF THE COLEOPTEEOUS SUB-FAMILY 

 BYESOPIN^ (CUECULIONID^). 



By Guy A. K. Marshall, F.Z.S. 



(Eead June 26, 1907.) 



(Plate VI.) 



In his monumental work on the Genera of Coleoptera, Lacordaire 

 divided his Tribe Byrsopsides into three groups. One of these, 

 which comprises only the aberrant North American genus Thece- 

 sterntis, Say, has been justly elevated by Dr. David Sharp (Biol. 

 Cent. Amer., iv., pt. 3, p. 86), to the rank of a separate sub-family. 

 With regard to his two remaining groups, " Byrsopsides vrais " and 

 Ehytirrhinides, Lacordaire states (vi., p. 297) that the only essential 

 character which separates them lies in the intermediate coxae, which 

 are contiguous in the former and separated in the latter. But as a 

 matter of fact, in both Byrsops, on the one hand, and Synthocus, 

 Schonh., on the other, we may find species belonging to both types ; 

 and indeed I am unable to consider that this character has here even 

 a generic value. The difficulty in distinguishing these two groups 

 disappears, however, if we remove from the Ehytirrhinides two 

 genera which have been erroneously united with them. 



The first of these is Synthocus, in which the mentum is eminently 

 adelognathous. Owing to the structure of its tarsi, scrobes, mandibles, 

 &c., this genus must find a place among, or near, the Brachycerinae, 

 and in the vicinity of Herpes, Bedel. This latter genus was also 

 placed by its author among the Byrsopinse ; but, as Lacordaire 

 himself pointed out (vi., p. 285, note 2), its adelognathous mentum 

 and the structure of its antennae necessitate its retention in the 

 Brachycerinas. 



The second genus referred to is Spartecencs, Schh. These insects 

 likewise are distinctly adelognathous ; and moreover they possess 

 pincer-like mandibles, with an evident mandibular scar. They must 

 therefore be provisionally referred to the Leptopinae. 



In his revision of Lacordaire's " Byrsopsides vrais," Pascoe (Trans. 



