441 
oj the Amazon Valley. 
ness of the antenna3, which in the males are not much 
longer than the body, and in both sexes are famished 
with the peculiar long soft hairs on the underside of many 
of the joints. The character derived from the apex of 
the elytra, spineless in Cometes, and spined in Distenia, 
is rendered inapplicable by the discovery of species of 
Distenia (e. g., D. viridi-cyanea, Thoms.) which have the 
elytra obtusely truncate, precisely as in certain species of 
Cometes. The great and abrupt variations in the form of 
the terminal joint of the maxillary palpi in the Disteniince 
are mentioned by Lacordaire as affording no generic 
distinction ; he admitted, however, the genus Heteropal- 
pus, which is founded on an extraordinary development 
of these organs in the males of certain Cometes, in which 
they are excessively elongate, and exhibit, proceeding 
from the base of the terminal joint, almost at right angles 
to it, an elongate hairy filament, as long as the joint of 
the palpus itself. This curious structure might be taken 
to be a monstrosity, did it not appear, in different form 
as to points of detail, in three distinct species. It can- 
not, however, be a generic distinction, for it occurs in 
the males of Cometes acutipennis (Buquet) a species 
having the ^closest possible affinity with others (e. g., C. 
Iceti ficus) in which the palpi are of normal form. 
1. Cometes Iceti ficus, n. sp. 
C. acutipenni proximo affinis, differt elytris apice magis 
obtusis, macula fulva humerali postice rotundata, suturam 
baud attingente, capite angustiori, etc. Cyaneus, nitidus, 
elytris laete purpureis, vitta lata discoidali caerulea, 
maculaque rotundata fulva humerali; antennis nigris, (^) 
usque ad apicem longe penicillatis ; capite angusto ; 
oculis haud prominentibus ; thorace spina laterali obtusa ; 
elytris crebre grosse punctatis, disco unicostatis, apice 
breviter obtuse truncatis. 
Long. 5 lin. ^ , 
Hah. — Ega. 
2. Cometes scapularis, n. sp. 
Robustior, viridi-cyaneus, nitidus, elytris macula hume- 
rali sanguinea, femoribus dimidio basali fiavo-testaceis ; 
