PASSALIDiE — STERNOXA. 143 



stanced, as far as I have been able to ascertain, have hitherto been found only in North America ; 

 while those with a tuberculated head are found in various parts of South America, in the East and 

 West Indies : and I have one in my cabinet from New Holland. Eleven specimens of the former 

 were collected in the Expedition, varying in size, and not a single one of the latter. 



As Linne describes his Lucanus interruptus, " Vertice spina recumbente" a character peculiar 

 to the species here described, I have restored to it its proper name, which Fabricius in his last work, 

 had assigned to the South American species with a tuberculated vertex : calling the North American 

 one or true Passalus interruptus by the trivial name of P. cornutus. These two species, which 

 have been regarded as sexes, differ not only in the processes that arm the head, but also in the 

 labrum, the sinus being deeper in one than in the other : the cubit in the Linnean P. interruptus 

 has more teeth than in the Fabrician, and the intermediate tibia is much more thickly bearded. 



At the first blush, the most direct course next to pursue would be from the Rec- 

 tocera by one route towards the Capricorn beetles, and perhaps by another in the 

 direction of some of the Heteromera: but a different and numerous tribe of beetles 

 demand our attention before we leave the Lamellicorns. Latreille has placed his 

 Sternoxi, forming the tribe alluded to, and including the great Linnean genera 

 Buprestls and Elater, at the head of his family of Serricornes, which with him 

 succeeds that of the Brachelytra or Staphylinus L. and is followed by his Clavl- 

 cornes, including most of the beetles that prey upon carrion : 6 but this, as has been 

 observed above, 7 separates tribes that ought not to be disunited ; and I cannot 

 help thinking, with Mr. W. S. Mac Leay, that their place ought to be much nearer 

 the Lamellicorns. This learned Entomologist includes both in the same great 

 section, under the title of Chilognathiformes or rather Chilognathimorpha, 8 but 

 what precise place he assigns them, he has nowhere clearly stated. Many inter- 

 mediate forms, however, as yet undiscovered, are wanted to connect the Sternoxa 

 evidently with the Lamellicorns. As many of the Elateridce, and I believe all the 

 Buprestidce are timber-devourers, I shall venture at present to regard them as 

 entitled to a station somewhere between the lignivorous Lamellicorns and the 

 Capricorns, with which last in their tarsi, the Buprestidce particularly, exhibit con- 

 siderable affinity. 



Regarding the groups from which they diverge, and those to which they direct 

 their course, as not yet indicated I shall now describe the species of Sternoxa taken 

 in the Expedition. 



6 Crust Arachn. et Ins. i, 442. 7 See above, p. 83. 



8 Hor. Entomolog. 423 ; comp. Annulos. Javan. i, 5. 



