SISYPHUS.— EUEYSTEKNTTS. oU 



SISYPHUS. 



Sisyphus, Latreille, Gen. Crust, et Ins. ii. p. 79 (1807) ; Lacordaire, Gen. Col. iii. p. 72; Lansberge, 

 Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg. xvii. p. 192. 

 A well-known Old- World genus, ranging from Southern Europe through the whole 

 of Southern Asia (including Ceylon), and through Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. 

 It appears not to be known in the Malay Archipelago, Australia, or in any Oceanic 

 Island; but reappears in Mexico and Central America in a single species. The 

 Mexican species, contrary to what might be expected, offers no marked peculiarity to 

 distinguish it from the ordinary type of the Old- World members of the genus, and in fact 

 is closely allied in form and sculpture to the Indian 8. longipes (Oliv.). The conclusion 

 is scarcely to be avoided that the species has followed man in his migrations. 



1. Sisyphus mexicaims. 



Sisyphus mexicanus, Harold, Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1863, p. 172 1 . 



Hab. Mexico \ Tuxtepec (Salle), Tehuantepec (Sumichrast), Misantla, Jalapa (Edge) ; 

 Nicaeagua, Chontales (Belt). 



EURYSTERNUS. 



Eurysternus, Dalman, Ephem. Entom. p. 8 (1824) ; Lacordaire, Gen. Col. iii. p. 106; Lansberge, 

 Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg. xvii. p. 192. 

 Twenty-three species of this very distinct and peculiar genus are known, all Tropical 

 American. 



1. Eurysternus claudicans. 



Eurystemus claudicans, Kirsch, Berl. ent. Zeitschr. 1870, p. 360 l ; Harold, Stett. ent. Zeit. 1880, 

 p. 13 \ 

 Hab. Nicaeagua, Chontales (Belt, Janson), Rio de San Juan (Janson); Panama, 

 Volcan de Chiriqui (Champion). — South Ambeica, Colombia l 2 , Amazons. 



Kirsch describes one sex only ; apparently from a single example, 15 millim. long. 

 The species varies in size from 14 to 22 millim. The rufescent elytra described by him 

 is the result probably of immaturity ; most of our examples are above of a dull olive- 

 black, and beneath dark glaucous-green. In the male the hind tibiae are angularly 

 bent and laterally flexuous, in some examples to an extraordinary degree, and armed 

 beneath with a large bicuspid tooth before, and two separate teeth behind, the middle, 

 the large tooth sometimes much reduced or entirely wanting, the apex pointed and 

 without spur. In the female the hind tibiae are simply arcuated, with a few small 

 denticulations beneath, the apex with a long free spur. 



2. Eurysternus velutinus. (Tab. II. fig. 17.) 



E. claudicanti similis ; elongato-oblongus, supra fusco-niger, subsericeo-opacus, brevissime nigro-setosus, subtus 



