HISTEIilDJE. — MPONIID.E. 93 



3. Club of antennae round or oval, pubescent, 



consisting of four joints, closely compacted, 



but separated by sutures Histerinje. 



4. Club of antennae without sutures, smooth, 



cylindrical, truncate at apex Hbtjeriinje. 



B. Prosternum without a lobe or throat-plate. 

 ■"). Antennae inserted under the side margin of 



the forehead Saprininje. 



0. Antennae inserted on the forehead Abrtein^: *. 



The genera Hister, Saprinus, and Platysoma are well represented 

 in India, and among other genera found in India and Ceylon 

 may be mentioned Plcesius, Apobleptes, Paromalus, Onthophilus, and 

 Abrceus. Gypturus was described by Erichson from the Himalayan 

 region, and Notodoma is represented by one species described by 

 Marseul from India. Trypanceus is confined to Tropical America, 

 the Indo-Malay region, and Japan. 



The very curious genus Niponius is closely related to the 

 HiSTERiDiE, to which family it Mas assigned by its discoverer, 

 Mr. G. Lewis, but it also bears affinities to other families, and is 

 in several ways abnormal ; we have therefore regarded it, with 

 some hesitation, as provisionally separate. 



Family 26. NIPONIIDjE. 



Form elongate, cylindrical ; head, large, nearly as broad, and 

 sometimes as long, as prothorax ; clypeus as a ride with horn-like 

 projections; mandibles large and strong, perpendicularly reflex ed ; 



antennas geniculate, with a round 

 compact club, apparently three- 

 jointed, but with the basal joint 

 ( the eighth of the antenna?) very 

 small; pronotum parallel- sided, 

 oblong, as broad as elytra ; pro- 

 sternum margined, rather nar- 

 nowly dividing the transverse an- 

 terior coccai, coxal cavities very 

 narrowly closed behind ; meso- 

 sternum very short, channelled ; 

 metasternum large, channelled, 

 with long and narrow episterna ; 

 intermediate coxae not widely di- 

 vided, transverse ; posterior coxa' 

 Fig. 46.— Niponius canalicollis. more ividely divided, but not very 



strongly as in Hister ; abdomen 

 with five or six visible ventral segments ; legs robust, tibial toothed 

 externally, tarsi very long and slender, the last joint nearly as long 

 as all the preceding four taken together. 



* See Ganglbauer, " Die Kat'er von Mitteleuropa/' ii, pp. 351-352. 



