286 Appendix to the Proceedings 



will be found to borrow characters from both, as well as to 

 possess others intermediate between them. It has the elongate 

 labrum canaliculated at the apex of Belonognatha, and also has 

 the mandibles longer and sharper than in Nycteis, although 

 not quite so prominent as in the other species of Belonognatha, 

 while its form is less tumid, and possesses the other characters 

 of Nycteis, except that the apex of the elytra is rounded at its 

 emargination instead of being toothed. This combination of 

 characters renders it, I think, impossible to keep the two genera 

 separate, and I have thought it better to unite them, only using 

 the subordinate characters for sectional subdivision. There is 

 one subordinate trivial character, which I have adopted, which 

 separates the species (after abstraction of the above characters) 

 into two groups, nearly equivalent to Nycteis and Belonognatha, 

 viz. that one group has the elytra (as seen under a powerful lens) 

 finely aciculated, somewhat in the same way as in the Calathi, 

 while the other has the elytra polished and shining, without this 

 aciculation, and apparently generally appearing metallic when 

 looked at from in front, and dark-coloured when looked at from 

 behind. I therefore, for these reasons, class the whole of the 

 following species under the generic name of Nycteis. If we 

 were to treat characters of similar value in the same way 

 throughout the group, it would be much simplified. We should 

 then throw Agonocheila, Stenoglossa and Coptodera together, 

 characterized as Coptodera with a middle tooth to the mentum, 

 as I have thrown Nycteis and Belonognatha together as Copto- 

 dera without a middle tooth, — the former inhabiting the New, 

 the latter the Old World. Indeed, I am strongly inclined to 

 believe that the mistake I have already referred to as having 

 been committed in the genus Lebia, of confounding the central 

 base of the ligula with the middle tooth of the mentum, has 

 been repeated here ; and that if these parts were more carefully 

 examined, it would be found that the species having a true tooth 

 to the mentum are confined to America, while those without the 

 tooth are restricted to the Old World. I do not think that the 

 structure of these parts has been sufficiently minutely attended 

 to by those authors who have described species of Coptodera as 

 inhabiting the East Indies and Africa. There are six species 

 described from each of these countries, and if these are analysed, 

 there seems very insufficient evidence for holding that they are 

 furnished with a tooth to the mentum. Of the six Eastern 

 species, one is described by Dejean, four by Schmidt-Goebel, and 

 one by Hope. As to Dejeair's species (C. gilvipes), we may put 

 it out of view, because he takes no notice of the mentum, and 

 he himself says, " Je ne suis pas bien certain que cette espece 



