ON THE CETONIID^ OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



11 



3. Mr. Kii-by, in the 14th volume of the Linnean Transactions, following perhaps an opinion 

 I had thrown out on the Horm Entomologicce, appears to consider Chasmodia, M'L., to be 

 close in affinity to the Cetoniidce. But the relation of Chasmodia to Lomaptera, G. P., is one 

 of analogy : the two groupes being corresponding points of contiguous families. Both are pol- 

 lenivorous groupes, agreeing in brilliancy of colour, and in their cleft clypeus but in no essen- 

 tial respect are they so constructed that they can be brought close together in affinity. 



4. In some species of the Cetordidoe the tergum of the prothorax (which shall, in my obser- 

 vations on this family hereafter, be generally called thorax, for convenience and in conformity to 

 the vulgar notion) is apt to have the middle part produced behind into a laminar lobe, which 

 covers the scutellum in a greater or less degree. In proportion as this structure occurs, 

 we always find the insect to be more sluggish and inactive. Thus the insects which compose 

 the American subgenus Gymnetis are incomparably more sluggish in their habits than our 

 European Cetonice. 



5. M. Dufour has given us the anatomy of the perfect insect of the well-known English 

 species Cetonia aurata, Fab. ; and Professor Dehaan has favoured us with the anatomy of its 

 larva. I shall in this place only observe, that the internal anatomy of the insects of this family 

 is subject to greater variation than their external anatomy ; and it must therefore be more 

 distrusted in classification, according to the principles I have ventured to lay down in the 14th 

 volume of the Linnean Transactions. 



6. In the following enumeration of the various groupes into which the Cetoniida have been 

 broken up, I shall endeavour to be strictly just in assigning them to their proper disco- 

 verers. From the respect due to the labours of my predecessors, I shall try to retain every 

 name that has been published ; but I would have it here clearly understood, that the name of 

 the author annexed to a technical word does not always signify that he invented that name, 

 but rather indicates the particular value given by that person to the groupe. Thus, for 

 instance, jTnc/jzwMS, Fab., will indicate the groupe called Trichiushy Fabricius ; and Trichius, 

 M'L. ; the value given to the Fabrician name by myself. The discoverer of a natural groupe 

 may have some merit, but the mere inventor of a name has really none. On this principle, 

 therefore, I have generally acted ; and more particularly when, in order to distinguish genera 

 from sub-genera, I have given the former a termination always in inus. 



(§enera. 



Aberrant Groupe. 



Larva having its mandibles 

 unidentate 

 extremity. 



1 TmcHiNus, Fab. 



. , , , , J XT, 2 Cryptodinus, M'L. 

 unidentate towards the 



ls3 Macrominus, M'L. 

 f 4 Gymnetinus, K. 



Normal Groupe. 



Lai"va having its mandibles j 

 pluridentate towards the 



extremity. 1^5 Cetoninus, M'L. 



r Terminal process of maxillse always furnished with a brush 

 but not with teeth. Epimeron never prominent between 

 1^ angles of thorax and elytra. 



^'Terminal process of maxillae never furnished with a brush, 

 <( but always dentated. Epimeron never prominent be- 



tween angles of thorax and elytra, 

 f Terminal process of maxUlse generally fui'nished with a 



brush and always with teeth. Epimeron always distinct 



between angles of thorax and elytra. 



Thorax lobate behind in the middle, and covering the 

 whole scutellum more or less with the lobe. 



( Thorax not so lobate behind, and leaving the whole scu- 

 ( tellum always distinct. 



c 2 



