Ceylon Coleoptera, 8fc. 31 



of flight may be gathered from the following : at a former 

 period, I lived in a house situated in a small eminence and 

 overlooking extensive groves of Cocoanut trees, Cinnamon 

 gardens, Paddy fields, and patches of jungle. Here I collected 

 large numbers of Pselaphidge, especially Euplectus, in thin, 

 scarcely visible spider webs with which the white walls of the 

 house were covered in certain places- — thus forming one large 

 trap for any thing small flying about. That these had been 

 caught here when on the wing, there can be no doubt ; but I 

 was much surprised to find with them (what is so common in 

 more congenial localities, here also,) a considerable number of 

 Scydmami, especially my S. advolans and pubescens, as they 

 were said by the most recent authority to be unable to fly, 

 and the position they then found themselves in, was one they 

 could not well or would not possibly have got into otherwise 

 than by flying. From some reason or other, I am ashamed to 

 say, I did not follow up the matter at the time ; but I am now 

 certain on the subject, indeed, to remove all doubt and to 

 settle all disputes, I have just been so fortunate as to take my 

 S. advolans actually on the wing, flying in my garden in the 

 evening at sunset. 



Having gone so far, I will (in spite of some slight misgiv- 

 ings of being laughed at for telling an old story with so grave 

 a face) add a few descriptive words about the organs in ques- 

 tion: The wings of my Scydma3ni are ample, about double 

 the size of the whole insect, oblong, having the margin beauti- 

 fully ciliated, and, with the exception of a few yellowish veins 

 at the base, without any visible organs of this kind. 



In spite of the difference in their shape, etc., I believe the 

 species described below to be all genuine Scydmssni as re- 

 stricted at present; being, however, unacquainted with the 

 sexual distinctions of these insects (which indeed I believe 

 not to have been satisfactorily pointed out by any one, and to 

 differ in different species), I should not be surprised if one or 



