cxl On the Word Hermaphrodite, 



black markings originate side by side at the base of the elytron, their length is rather 

 less than a third that of the elytron, and that nearest the black sutural line unites 

 therewith at the base ; rather below the middle of each elytron are two others, whereof 

 that nearest the suture is broadest and extends the lowest, a 5th on each elytron occu- 

 pies the costal angle : the legs are brownish black; the metafemora are slightly incras- 

 sated and furnished with a slight central tubercle and a strong acute praeapical tooth ; 

 tarsi as in A. chrysura. 



Hab. — Australia. One of the most abundant and most widely diffused of Austra- 

 lian Coleoptera, but I am unable to find a prior description. Mr. S. Stevens has re- 

 ceived it from Mr. Wilson, and I received it from numerous and distant localities, 

 during my Curatorship of the Entomological Club. 



Ametalla decolor. 



Testacea, nitida, prothorace capite antennisque saluratioribus elytris pallidioribus ; me- 

 tafemora nullo modo armata. {Corp. long. *35 unc. Elytrorum lat. max. *125 

 unc) 



Antennae dull testaceous, of nearly the same length as the body, of uniform thick- 

 ness, 11-jointed, the 2nd joint the shortest, the 3rd and following gradually increasing 

 \n length, the last terminating in an extremely acute point : eyes prominent, round, 

 distant, black: head fusco-testaceous, closely and confluently punctured : prothorax ra- 

 ther broader than the head, its greatest diameter near the middle, narrowed before and 

 behind, fusco-testaceous, punctured, slightly downy, with a glabrous median longitu- 

 dinal posterior line : scutellum extremely small, rounded : elytra ample at the base, 

 much broader than the prothorax, each elytron has a distinct longitudinal sulcus pa- 

 rallel with and closely approximate to the suture. 



Hab. — Australia. Same locality and collection as the two preceding. 



Edward Newman. 



Art. XXIV. — On the Word Hermaphrodite, as employed in Zoology ; considered espe- 

 cially with regard to a Bee accidentally possessing some of the distinguishing 

 Charcters of both Sexes. By Edward Newman. 



I think I was the first to suggest that time and trouble might be saved by con- 

 fining one term to one organ or one phenomenon; this was twenty years ago; and 

 although my suggestion has been cleverly opposed, and occasionally ridiculed with 

 considerable acrimony, yet I am not altogether disposed to abandon it, although I have 

 seen it convenient occasionally to yield to custom, as, for example, in the instance of 

 elytron, universally substituted for what I regard as the older, more precise, and more 

 meaning term, wing. The word hermaphrodite is one of those which has always 

 appeared to require this restriction, being currently used to express four distinct phe- 

 nomena, which it is the object of this paper to define and discriminate : but prior to 

 this it limy perhaps be as well to glance at the meaning and origin of the word, in 

 fact, its history, previously to its employment in physical science. 



