320 LAMELLICOENIA. 



3. Bothy nus monstrosus. 



Late quadrato-oblongus, niger, nitidus, subtus piceus, vulpino-rufo birtus. Mandibular et capite sicut in 

 B. simplicitarsi, occipite prolongate* excepto ; tborace latissimo et brevissimo, antice profundissime trian- 

 gulariter emarginato, margine ipso in medio interrupto, dorso medio sulcato, disco anteriore utrinque in 

 foveam elongato-transversam excavato et scabroso-punctato, fovearum margine posteriore fiexuoso et 

 obtuse plurituberculato, lateribus cum angulis posticis rotundatis ; elytris sicut in B. simplicitarsi fere 

 lsevibus. S • Tarsi antici unguibus simplicibus. 



Long. 30 millim. rf . 



Hab. Guatemala, Coban in Vera Paz (Conradt). One example only. 



CHEIROPLATYS. 



Cheiroplatys, Hope, Col. Man. i. p. 84, t. 1. fig. 3 (1837); Burmeister, Handb. der Ent. v. p. 108; 



Lacordaire, Gen. Col. iii. p. 411 (1856). 

 Orizabus, Fairmaire, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1878, p. 260 ; Horn, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. xii. p. 124 



(1885). 



The genus Orizabus was suggested, without name, by Lacordaire, who, in a footnote 

 to his description of the Australian genus Cheiroplatys, mentioned that he had a 

 Mexican species possessing characters belonging to it, but differing in many essential 

 points ; but these differences were not specified either by him or by Fairmaire, who 

 admitted the very close affinity between the Mexican and Australian forms. The 

 uncertainty under which the genus Cheiroplatys stands, owing to Hope's erroneous and 

 misleading description and figures, and the further confusion he introduced by 

 founding his characters on an undescribed species, whilst citing as the type a Fabrician 

 species which has no near relationship to his described type, are no doubt partly the 

 cause why the genus Orizabus was founded and has been retained. I think, however, 

 the two genera may be safely reduced to one. The great similarity in the extraordinary 

 form of the fore tibia? of the male in nearly all the species, and in the reflexed front 

 edge of the clypeus raised behind the true front edge, as well as the entire agreement 

 in form of thorax and legs and in the sculpture, is corroborated by a close agreement 

 in the parts of the mouth, especially in the short and broad, unarmed mandibles 

 (concealed in repose), and the elongated mentum, gradually narrowed but parallel-sided 

 in the ligular part, with the apex of the latter notched or truncated. Hope's figure of 

 the maxillae is superficially accurate, but he failed to note that the two apparently 

 simple teeth are each two teeth side by side ; as to the mentum his figure and 

 description are alike erroneous if they are taken from the same species, C. juvencus of 

 Burmeister (Handb. der Ent. v. p. 110), which both authors consider to be the 

 C. juvencus, Kirby, MS., the type of the genus. I have compared the parts of the 

 mouth of that species with those of C. (Orizabus) cultri/pes, Fairm. 



Five species of Orizabus have been described from the United States and Mexico, and 

 twelve species of Cheiroplatys from Australia and the Islands of the Western Pacific. 

 Many of the latter require re-examination. 



