EchinodermatH. 415 



Description of Hermerius impar, a new Beetle belonging to the stirps Macrocera and 

 the natural order Ceramby 'cites. I propose the new genus Hermerius as distinct from 

 the other Australian Prionidas, on account of some discrepancies which will be suffi- 

 ciently manifest in the description. The head is small, and bends downwards almost in 

 a vertical position, and it has a deep median longitudinal groove, which terminates 

 just above the mouth : the eyes are large and oblong, and are scarcely at all indented 

 at the insertion of the antennae : the antennas in the female are scarcely half so long 

 as the body, in the male they are rather more than half as long, they aTe slender, and 

 composed of eleven joints, the first and third of which are the longest, the second ve- 

 ry short, and the remaider of nearly equal length, the tenth and eleventh are somewhat 

 flattened, and are impressed with numerous irregular longitudiual furrows, and a few 

 furrows also appear on the eighth and ninth joints; the other joints are cylindrical and 

 shining, and have many large, deep, punctures : the pro thorax is gibbous, rough, un- 

 even, and deeply, irregularly, and confluently punctured ; its lateral margins are arm- 

 ed with a few irregular and unequal teeth, one of which, much larger than the rest and 

 somewhat spine-like, is placed at the posterior angle and near the base of the elytra : 

 the scutellum is large, triangular, smooth and shining : the elytra are much wider than 

 the prothorax, very long and rounded at the apex, without any anal tooth or spine: all 

 the tibiae are without external spines or serratures, a character which will at once dis- 

 tinguish this genus from Cnemoplites, Sceleocantha, and the allied forms of Australa- 

 sian Prionidae ; the femora have a few minute but distinct teeth beneath. The colour 

 of H. impar is that pitchy brown so common among the family Prionidae, the elytra 

 being paler than the other parts : on the elytra are two indistinct longitudinal ridges ; 

 the head, prothorax and sternum are very hairy, especially in the male : in the under 

 side of the abdomen of the two sexes there is a very remarkable difference, that of the 

 female being perfectly smooth and very glabrous, while that of the male has a large 

 lunulate depression in each segment, occupying the greater part of its surface, and 

 completely filled with a dense mass of yellowish hairs. The female is rather more 

 than 2 inches in length, the male rather less; the breadth of the female is '7 inch, of 

 the male *6 inch. The only specimens I have seen were sent to me from Kanguroo 

 Island by Mr. Davis, and are now in the cabinet of the British Museum. — It/. 



Note on the occurrence of Echinodermata at Ramsgate. In the spring of the present 

 year, namely from February to May, I visited Ramsgate, and did not fail to examine 

 the shore between high and low water mark, my search being greatly facilitated by the 

 spring tides, which gave me a more extended range. The following are my remarks. 

 The common cross-fish ( Uraster rubens, Forbes) and the common sun-star (Solasterpap. 

 posa, Forbes), were the only two species I found ; they appear to inhabit different lo- 

 calities ; the former are found nearer high-water mark than the latter, as well as being 

 left dry by the tide, whilst the sun-stars are always found in the small pools left by the 

 tide, not attached to anything, but lying on the sand at the bottom ; the cross-fish, on 

 the contrary, were invariably found firmly attached to the rocks : I should doubt whe- 

 ther they can move equally easy with the sun-star, or whether they have even a volun- 

 tary or a moving power within themselves at all : what would favour this supposition 

 is the fact that several of the number I found were deformed in consequence of the 

 arms suiting themselves to the shape of the crevices in which the fish had located them- 



