190 Descriptions of new Ceylon Coleoptera. [no. new series, 



themselves otherwise but 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 misgivings of 

 being laughed at for telling an old story with so grave a face) add 

 a few descriptive words about the organs in question : The wings 

 of my Scydmjeni are ample, about double the size of the whole 

 insect, oblong, having the margin beautifully 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 Scydmjeni as restricted at pre- 

 sent. Being, however, unacquainted with the sexual distinctions 

 of these insects (which indeed I believe not to have been satisfac- 

 torily pointed out by any one, and to differ in different species) I 

 should not be surprised if one or two of my species were eventual- 

 ly ascertained to have been separated upon these grounds alone. 

 However, having been very reluctant to admit new species, it is 

 just as likely that individuals may hereafter be found united in one 

 which ought to be separated into two species. But I trust that nei- 

 ther contingency may happen. The species were all collected by my- 

 self in the immediate neighbourhood of Colombo. I have, however, 

 no doubt that they occur all over the S. W. part of the Island, which 

 is of an uniform physical character, and they may perhaps occupy a 

 still larger portion of it. None of them are very common, on the con- 

 trary^ nearly half of them I possess only one or two specimens. My 

 S.femoralis I found under the soft,rotting bark of anErythrina indica. 

 S. Ceylanicus and ovatus I found dead in spiderwebs. S. gramini- 

 cola, glanduliferus and pyriformis I have hitherto taken exclusively 

 in the sweeping net on the lawn of my garden about sunset, 

 the other species I have met with indiscriminately in spiderwebs, 

 under rotting vegetable substances and in the grass. 



After this preamble, which I trust may not be deemed quite su- 

 perfluous, I now enter upon the description of my species, previ- 



