Prionid^ INSECTS. Cerambycid.®. 233 
Turner, Esq., M.P. for Manchester, connects, as I fancy, 
so I have shown elsewhere, the Brenthidce with the 
Prioniclce through the genus Dorysthenes. 
I have caused the excellent figure of the Hypoce- 
phalus to be copied — figs. 130, 131. 
A glance will show that the insect is closely related 
to Dorysthenes rostratus and D. montanus, and the 
allied genera of Prionidce; while I have shown else- 
where its affinities to, if they be not stronger than 
analogies with, some of the Brenthidce. 
Family — PRIONIDiE. 
The family of Prionid./E contains some of the largest 
of coleopterous insects. In this group of Beetles comes 
the very gigantic South American Longicoru, named 
Titanus giganteus. The insect with the name derived 
from the “ family of the giants,” and bearing the 
generic name of their very type and crown, is now 
becoming scarce. No wonder! Titanus giganteus is 
sought eagerly bj' three parties : first, they say that 
monkej's eat them ; secondly, I know that the negroes 
hunt eagerly for their large soft grubs. The third assail- 
lant of Titanus is the insect collector, who can get 
easily a couple of sovereigns or napoleons, or several 
dollars, for even an injured specimen. Many of the 
You II. 86 
Prionidce have large jaws ; as in Macrodontia cervi- 
cornis and Psalidognathus Friendii. The late Mr. 
Empson took perhaps the first specimen of this insect 
which ever attracted the attention of a European. Mr. 
George Robert Gray described a specimen brought 
from Columbia by Lieutenant Friend, which was in 
the collection of John George Children, F.R.S. The 
specimen is now in the British Museum. Mr. Empson 
saw one for the first time in Columbia, at a feast given 
by the Cabildo at Mariquita. On that occasion he 
observed one of the Columbian dons with a Psalidog- 
nathus, which he used as a button to loop up the broad 
brim of his Panama hat, after the fashion of Spanish 
costume. To this Don Domingo Condd had attached 
a loop of living fire-flies as a brilliant ornament. This 
Psalidognathus has enormous jaws cross- 
ing each other somewhat like scissors; 
the male has wings ; the female has only 
elytra. It and an allied species are now 
common. 
The insect here figured by Mr. Holmes, 
of the natural size, was found by Mr. 
John Macgillivray at Tana among the 
New Hebrides, when he was naturalist 
on board her Majesty’s surveying-ship 
Herald. In the Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society, it was described under 
the name of Psalidocoptus scaber — fig. 
132. The specimen figured is a female, 
and exhibits this rough blackish-brown, 
Longicorn beetle, the elytra of which are 
united along the suture. The name 
alludes to the elytra being cut with a 
delicate outline and incisures, as you may 
see papers cut with scissors. The male 
is smaller. 
Family- CERAMBYCID^ and 
LAMIADZE. 
I can only refer briefly to a few of the 
Cerambycid^. with their horizontal 
heads, and to one or two of the Lami- 
ADAE, with their precipitous foreheads. 
Some of the latter must bite very fiercely, 
such as the Petrognatha gigas of West 
Africa, with its strong jaws and spined 
thorax. Dr. Baird sent us from Kings- 
land, when be lived there, a fine polished 
metallic beetle of this family, with curi- 
ously club-shaped shanks, and named 
by naturalists Cordylomera nitidipennis. 
This fine beetle had pastured as a grub on the Swietenia 
mahogany, a tree of the West Indies. Fine as the 
beetle is to the entomologist, the cabinetmaker would 
much prefer his log, or the veneer from it, to be with- 
out the holes made by the boring of the grub of Cor- 
dylomera. Its red legs and thorax are covered with 
fine shining green elytra, from which entomologists 
give it the name of nitidipennis. 
On Plate 3, fig. 3, is represented the beautiful grey 
and black alpine Rosalia alpina. A similarly elegant 
species was received lately from Vancouver’s Island, or 
Fis?. 132. 
