PHYTALTJS.— LACHNOSTEKNA. 185 



but the dentition of the claws is widely different, Anonetus being denned as having a 

 quadrangular tooth at the base of the claw. It will be seen further on that a section 

 of Lachnosierna has also 8-jointed antennae, and, in some examples but not in others, 

 concealed mandibles, so that the genus is evidently untenable. 



27. Phytalus ? 



Hah. Mexico (Salle, ex coll. Sturm). 



Two mutilated specimens -of a species with 9 -jointed antennae, named by Sturm 

 Schizonycha puncticollis. 



LACHNOSTERNA. 



Lachnosterna, Hope, Col. Manual, i. p. 100 (1837) ; Leconte, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. ser. 2, 

 iii. p. 235 (1856); Kirscli, Sharp, Lansberg, Waterhouse, Quedenfeldt. 



Ancylonycha, Blanchard, Hist, des Ins. i. p. 216 (1845) ; Cat. Coll. Ent. i. p. 132 (1850) ; Burmeister, 

 Handb. der Ent. iv. 2, p. 308 (1855); Lacordaire, Gen. Col. iii. p. 284 (1856). 



Trichestes, Erichson, Naturg. Ins. Deutschl. iii. p. 658 (1848). 



Endrosa, Leconte, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. ser. 2, iii. p. 234 [1856] (apud Horn, Trans. Am. 

 Ent. Soc. vii. p. 138 [1878]). 



Gynnis, Leconte, 1. c. p. 262 (apnd Horn, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. vii. p. 138). 



The species with more or less narrowly-cleft tarsal claws being excluded to form the 

 unsatisfactory genus Phytalus, a polymorphic host of nearly 200 described species 

 remain, which it is extremely difficult to arrange in natural groups. After trying 

 various courses, I have preferred to take the armature of the claws as a basis of 

 grouping, finding that the result does less violence to the apparent natural affinities of 

 the species than is shown when any other varying character, such as the structure of the 

 antennae, the parts of the mouth, or the secondary sexual characters, is adopted. I do 

 not wish it to be inferred that the groups are perfectly natural and applicable to the 

 species of other regions ; in fact they apply very imperfectly to the Lachnosternce of 

 temperate North America, and not at all to Asiatic species. But neither does the 

 system adopted in Leconte's synopsis of the North- American species suit the forms of 

 the Tropical- American fauna. 



The genus is very numerously represented in our region, particularly in Mexico, and 

 judging from the many single specimens of apparently distinct species met with by our 

 travellers, and that continue to arrive, it is highly probable that we are not acquainted 

 with one half the species that exist in the country. The genus seems to diminish in 

 the number of its representatives further south, but many are described from Colombia, 

 Venezuela, and the West Indies ; in the plains of the Amazons it is practically unknown, 

 a single damaged example found after a storm being all that I met with during eleven 



biol. centk.-amek., Coleopt., Vol. II. Pt. 2, February 1888. 2 BB 



