214 LAMELLICOENTA. 



87. Lachnosterna cylindrica. 



Trichestes cylindrica, Burm. Handb. der Ent. iv. 2, p. 361 \ 

 Bab. Mexico or West Indies K 



EUGASTEA. 



Eugastra, Leconte, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. ser. 2, iii. p. 233 (1856). 



Leconte founded this genus chiefly on the deep emargination of the ligula, a 

 character which Dr. Horn has since proved, by the dissection of many species of 

 Lachnosterna, to have no generic value. But Leconte added the characters: — both 

 sexes apterous, the body above and beneath glabrous. These features, combined with 

 the extremely short metasternum and the subterranean or epigeous habits of the species, 

 seem to mark out a definite modification of the Lachnosterna type worthy of generic 

 distinction. 



The genus Tostegoptera, Blan chard, founded on L. lanceolata, Say, is allied to 

 Eugastra, but differs in the female only being apterous and having a short metasternum 

 destitute of villosity, the male being in these respects a typical Lachnosterna. It forms 

 a transition to the Lachnosternce through L. nigerrima (Bates), in which the male has 

 a villose metasternum of the normal length, and the female a shortened and scantily 

 pilose metasternum, but in which both sexes are winged. Tostegoptera is not admitted 

 as distinct from Lachnosterna by Leconte ; in which view he appears to me to have more 

 justification than he has in including L. wqualis and L.farcta in the latter genus — they 

 are both much more nearly related to Eugastra; L.farcta (the only one I have been 

 able to examine) at least having a very short and glabrous metasternum, though winged 

 in both sexes. 



Leconte admits two Texan species only as belonging to the genus, which cannot 

 satisfactorily be distinguished from the Old-World Geotrogus. 



1. Eugastra cribrosa. (Tab. XL fig. 21.) 



Tostegoptera cribrosa, Lee. Proc. Ac. Phil. vi. p. 231 \ 

 Eugastra cribrosa, Lee. Journ. Ac. Phil. ser. 2, iii. p. 234 \ 



Hab. Noeth Ameeica, Texas 1 2 . — Mexico, Monterey in Nuevo Leon {Edge). One 



example. 



Subfam. MELOLOATHLNM 



POLYPHYLLA. 



Polyphylla, Harris, Ins. of Massachusetts, p. 30 (1842) ) Lacordaire, Gen. Col. iii. p. 294 (1856) ; 

 Leconte, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. ser. 2, iii. p. 228 (1856) ; Horn, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. ix. 

 p. 73 (1881) ; Kraatz, Deutsch. ent. Zeit. xxvi. p. 134. 



Eighteen species of this fine and well-known genus have been described. It is 



