5088 Notices of New Books. 



new genera, and he described them under the names of Enotiophorus vestitus and 

 Triplacodes Guineeusis, the former from Ceylon, the latter from Guinea. 



Mr. Stevens communicated the following note from Mr. H. W. Bates, Corr. 

 M.E.S.:— 



On the Sexual Distinctions in the South- American Coleopterous Genus Agra. 



" Lately I captured a pair, in copuld, of a species of the genus Agra, and profited 

 by the fortunate circumstance to examine if there were any external differences between 

 the sexes. I found several characters very strongly marked, in fact so obvious that I 

 think it scarcely possible they have escaped the notice of entomologists to the present 

 time. The chief distinction is the pubescence of the under surface of the body in 

 the male. Examining afterwards other species, with this guide, I have paired satis- 

 factorily five or six. The amount of pubescence varies according to the species: 

 whilst in one the central parts of the metasternum and all the abdominal segments 

 are densely clothed with a thick woolly pile, in others the metasternum and basal seg- 

 ment of the abdomen only has a thick short erect pubescence. The other characters 

 are less obvious, and chiefly comparative : one is the great thickness of the femora, 

 especially the anterior, in the male ; this character, however, is marked only in part of 

 the species : another is the relative length of the apical abdominal segment, and the 

 shape of the notch in its posterior edge. In the male this segment is shorter than in the 

 female ; the notch is deeper and more rounded ; in the female it is always shallow and 

 angular. The last character appears in those species in which each elytron is doubly 

 sinuate at the apex: when this is the case the sinuation is stronger in the female, the 

 central tooth being much more prominent than in the male. In one species I have 

 noticed the male has only a single sinuation, whilst the female is doubly sinuate- 

 truncate at the apex of each elytron." 



Society's ' Transactions. * 



Part 8, completing Vol. iii. n. s. of the ' Transactions,' was on the table. — 

 J. W. D. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



'Annals and Magazine of Natural History.'' Nos. 98, 99 and 100, 

 dated February, March and April, 1856; No. 98, price 5s. 9 

 Nos. 99 and 100, price 2s. 6d. each. London: Taylor and 

 Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 



No. 98 contains the following papers : — 



' Notes on the Palaeozoic Bivalved Entomostraca. No. 3. Some 

 Species of Leperditia.' By T. Rupert Jones, F.G.S. 



1 Further Observations on the Development of Gonidia (?) from the 



