MEGATHOPA. 25 



Tribe LAMELLICORNIA. 



In dealing with this great and important tribe of Coleoptera, the described species of 

 which from all parts of the world cannot now be fewer than 10,000, I have found it 

 convenient to follow, with but slight modifications and omitting the main divisions 

 founded on the situation of the abdominal spiracles, the classification given in the 

 third volume of Lacordaire's ' Genera.' The tribe has been considered by eminent 

 entomologists to be the most highly organized of the entire order. The " Lamelli- 

 cornia " are further remarkable as being more sharply severed than most others from 

 the nearest allied tribes : thus the plan adopted in the " Carabidse " and " Longicornia" 

 of the present work, of beginning with the least specialized forms (or those which show 

 traces of approach to other tribes), is here impracticable, as no connecting links have 

 been discovered. There are, nevertheless, numerous genera which exhibit characters 

 intermediate between those of the chief Families composing the Tribe ; such genera 

 were included by Lacordaire in his ' Orphnides,' ' Hybosorides,' ' Glaphyrides,' and 

 some of the earlier groups of his ' Melolonthides ; ' and it would perhaps be an improve- 

 ment to displace these genera from the position he assigned to them and make them 

 the starting-point of the classification of the whole tribe, taking afterwards in succession 

 the larger families which radiate from this common root of the whole. But this course 

 could not be taken with advantage in a Faunistic work; it is a task for a future 

 Monographer, and will entail a careful study of numerous aberrant genera from 

 various parts of the world, many of which are isolated forms and rare in collections. 

 For the present I have taken the relations of the ligula to the mentum as offering a 

 better main division of the Tribe than the position of the abdominal spiracles. 



Subtribe I. Ligula distinct from the mentum. 



Fam. COPEID^. 



MEGATHOPA. 



Megathopa, Eschscholtz, Entomogr. p. 34 (1822) ; Naturwiss. Abhandl. ans Dorpat, i. p. 90 (1823) ; 

 Lacordaire, Gen. Col. iii. p. 75. 



Thirteen species of this genus have been described, more than half belonging to 

 temperate South America, the rest spread over the tropical zone as far north as 

 Yucatan. 



l. Megathopa yucateca (Tab. II. fig. l.) 



Megathopa yucateca, Harold, Ann. Soc. Ent. Er. 1863, p. 173 \ 



Hob. Mexico, Yucatan \ Merida (Salle), Tapachula in Chiapas (Edge). 

 biol. centr.-amer., Coleopt., Vol. II. Pt. 2, May. 1887. EE 



