166 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



ii. Anisocera. 



Family TROGOSITID^. Trogositidam. 



LXXXVI. * Genus TROGOSITA. Oliv. 



(220) 1. * Trogosita Americana. American Trogosita. 



T. (Americana) glabra, picea, J route foveata, ebjtris substriatis ; striis punctatis ; antennis clava incrassata : prothorace sub- 



quadrato. 

 American Trogosita, naked, piceous ; front impressed ; elytra slightly furrowed : furrows punctured : antennee with a thick 



knob : prothorax rather square. 



Length of the body 5 lines. 



Two specimens taken in the Journey between New York and Cumberland-house. 



DESCRIPTION. 



This species is the American representative of T. caraboides from which it principally differs in 

 being larger, with the frontal impressions more distinct; the stalk of the antenna? much slenderer, 

 and the knob thicker : the prothorax not so narrow and constricted at the base, and the elytra 

 slightly furrowed. 



The tribe to which Trogosita belongs, though evidently connected with that after which I have 

 placed it, appears to bring us very little nearer to the Capricorns; their prothorax indeed and 

 depressed body indicate some approach towards them, but their antenna? and general habit shew them 

 to require many intermediate forms to fill up the interval between them. M. Latreille's third family 

 of his Tetramera, which he denominates Platysoma, will however now carry us on towards the con- 

 fines of the last mentioned tribes : for in this family, the antenna? lose their knob, and become nearly 

 setaceous, and in several species the prothorax is armed with little teeth like the Prionidans : there 

 is an insect belonging to the family I am speaking of, which De Geer has described and figured 

 under the name of Altelabus glaber, 2 but which in a modern system would stand as a distinct genus, 3 

 approaching very near to Prionus, except that its prothorax has no teeth, and the antennae are pro- 

 portionally shorter ; owing to its protended mandibles, it has the aspect of a miniature Prionus 

 exsertus. 4 



But a near approach, in another instance, is made by the Prionidans to the Lucanidans, 

 Amongst the insects collected by the late lamented Sir Stamford Raffles in Sumatra, is an anoma- 

 lous species, or rather genus, apparently belonging to the first of these families, which exhibits also 

 the antenna? and tibia? of the last, and itself, as to its tarsi, is heteromerous ; thus interchanging 

 characters, and proving its right to affinity, with the Lucanidans. 



From what has been above stated, it appears clear I think that the Xylophaga by means of Tro- 

 gosita, as Messrs. Gyllenhall and Mac Leay have observed, touch upon the iMcanidce, and it is 

 equally evident, that M. Latreille is also correct in connecting, by means of his Platysoma, the 

 Xylophaga with the Capricorns: 5 we may observe here that the genus Spondylis, though placed 

 by Latreille amongst the Prionidans seems to furnish a link connecting the Platysoma, to which 

 it surely belongs, with another family of Capricorns the Lamiadans ; and particularly with a genus, 

 or subgenus, belonging to it, the type of which is Lamia vermicidaris of Donovan. 6 



: De Geer iv, 351, 2, t. xix, /. 14. 3 I call it Gnathuphorus. 



4 Oliv. Ins. G6, t. viii, f. 31. 5 Fabricius has placed the Prioni next the Lucani. 



6 This genus stands in my cabinet under the name of Sthenera. 



