PINOTUS. — COPEIS. 53 



before the other, P. carolinus having one only. The species varies greatly in size and 

 general form ; and in the shape of the cephalic tubercle, which in well-developed male 

 examples is sometimes obtusely pointed and sometimes broad and emarginated at the 

 tip. Extreme forms differ considerably from North-American specimens of P. carolinus ; 

 but many male examples, especially from Guatemala, offer no difference worthy of note 

 from others of the middle Atlantic States of North America. 



P. eremita, Harold, from Colombia is a closely allied form ; but I do not venture to 

 refer the Central-American series to it, as two male examples from Colombia, which I 

 have been able to examine, offer a modification in the shape of the cephalic tubercle 

 which does not occur in any of the Central- American specimens. 



8. Pinotus colonicus. (Tab. III. %g. 7, c? ; 8, $ .) 



Copris colonica, Say, Boston Joum. Nat. Hist. i. p. 174 (?) (1835) l ; Complete Writings, ii. 



p. 649. 

 Pinotus bituberculatus, Harold, L'Abeille, vi. p. 127 (<J) (1869); Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1869, 



p.500 2 . 



Hal. Mexico 1 , Alamos (PucJian-Hephurn), Guajuco in Nuevo Leon (Dr. Palmer), 

 Presidio (Forrer), Izucar, Mazatlan, Tuxtla, Cordova 2 , Vera Cruz 2 (Salle), Jalapa, 

 Aguas Calientes, Zapotlan in Colima, Tecomevaca, Tapachula in Chiapas (Hbge). 



The two tubercles of the head ( 6 ), which constitute almost the sole differential 

 character of this species, seem to be the result of inferior development, owing to unknown 

 local causes. It is a prevailing rule in the horned Copridse (as in other analogous groups) 

 that the smaller and feebler males lose the strongly developed armature of the larger 

 males and resemble the females. This is exemplified in the present case by the hinder 

 tubercle of the male, which is the homologue of the same prominence in the female, 

 and which disappears in the male of P. carolinus ; whilst the anterior tubercle, which 

 is extremely small in feeble males of P. colonicus, becomes larger and more elevated 

 according to the degree of development of the larger males. In P. carolinus the hind 

 tubercle (a female character) disappears in the males altogether. 



COPRIS. 



Copris, Geoffroy, Hist, des Ins. Envir. Paris, i. p. 87 (1762) ; Erichson, Naturgeschichte der Ins. 

 Deutschl. i. 3, pp. 761, 786. 



This well-known genus, distributed over all the tropical and warmer temperate 

 regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, with the exception of Australasia and the 

 Oceanic Islands, is well represented in our Fauna and in temperate North America. 

 It is, however, absent from South America, with the exception of one species 

 strayed from Central America and the West Indies. About eighty species have 

 been described. 



