Ceylon Coleoptera, §-c. 



19 



Ubi praecedentes sed infrequenter occurrit. 



The g. Ptilium is the repository for all the anomalies of the 

 family, its characteristics therefore are very vague ; but if the 

 absence of the mesosternal carina and the simplicity of the 

 posterior coxa?, are the determining features amongst them, the 

 present species, in spite of a variety of anomalies it exhibits 

 in other respects, belongs to it. The head is of middling size ; 

 the antennae robust with the first joint of the club of the shape 

 of an inverted cone, the second rather cylindrical, narrowed at 

 the base, and the last elongate, ovate. The thorax is of very 

 different structure from that of the foregoing species of the 

 family, the basal angles being unusually far produced beyond 

 the shoulders, towards the head it is strongly and rapidly 

 rounded off, being thus altogether of a semicircular shape, 

 at the appex it is merely slightly sinuated, and the head is 

 inserted rather below than in this sinuosity, the whole thorax 

 moreover is very convex, whilst the elytra are depressed. The 

 wings vary from the typical form by being fringed with short 

 simple cilia, instead of those long feathery appendages ; they 

 are moreover without a distinct peduncle, but still folded in 

 the manner characteristic of the family. The legs are stout 

 with the tibiee thickest at the tip, the third tarsal joint is of the 

 length of the preceding two, the latter are somewhat bilobed 

 and hairy below. The posterior coxa? are simple and distant. 

 The mesosternum without a carina. The whole shape of the 

 insect is quadratic rather than otherwise. 



14. Ptenidium macrocephalum. N. 



P. ellipticuni, subccmvexum, nitidum, sparsim pilosum, supra piceo- 

 seneum, subtus piceum pebibus oreque testaceis. Long. corp. \ lin. 



Caput maximum. Antennarum clava elongata articulis ellipticis. 

 Thorax subquadratus antice posticeque angustatus, basi punctis 4 magnis 

 profunde impressus. Elytra ovata, medium versus leviter inflate, apice 

 obtuse acuminata, abdomine longiora et ampliora. puno'tiilis lineis dispo- 



