MEMBRA GIDJE. 
223 
multiplicity of genera and species would seem to militate against this simplicity. 
Whether we look on the molecule as matter simply endowed with life, or as matter 
inanimate, the simple seems to vanish in the complex with its ramifications. 
Yet the notion of classification—that is, of ranging things in order and sequence 
—involves the selection of like from the unlike, and therefore within intellectual 
limits we must bear with it. These remarks may be apologetic as to the proposal of 
the numerous new genera I here provisionally offer. Some of these genera probably 
will stand, as future research brings additional species into observation ; whilst others 
may not stand this test. Classification must really he tentative ; for nature refuses 
to be pressed into the moulds which we construct for her. 
Genus : OXYKHACHIS. 
Burm. Amy. et Serv. Fairmaire, l.c. p. 2G7. Still, l.c. p. 84. Walk. l.c. p. 503, 128. 
Fairmaire gives the diagnosis of this genus as “ Prothorax arme de deux cornes 
humerales se prolongeant au-dela de l’abdomen et quelquefois des elytres en lame 
aigue. Tous les tibias dilates.” Scutellum hidden, and the head truncate. The 
genus Centruchoides of Fowler is very like Oxyrhachis, as is also Centruclius of 
Stal. The former genus is American, and the two latter are Old World forms, but 
it is probable that the slight differences in the neuration may be due to climatal and 
other like causes, for we can hardly expect that in so variable a family of insects all 
the world-wide forms should be strictly alike. The same remark may apply also to 
the spatuliform legs and the sometimes truncated suprahumeral processes instead of 
the usual acute characters. 
In my figures of the species I propose to ignore these small differences in order to 
give a general view of this group. Subdivision may hereafter be more exactly 
done by other observers. 
Stal describes the tegmina with five apical areas, and furnished with a broad 
limbus. All the tibiae are stated to be dilated. 
OXYRHACHIS TARANDUS. 
(Plate XLIX. figs. 3, 3a, 3b.) 
Centrotus tarandus, Amy. et Serv. l.c. 536. Fairm. l.c. 268, PI. IV. fig. 13. Walk. supt. p. 503. 
Fusco-ferruginous. Pronotum with two rather short porrect suprahumerals. 
The posterior process reaching to the tips of the tegmina, and the pronotum quite 
covering the scutellum. Tegmina hyaline, with fuscous nervures enclosing four 
apical areas and three discoidals. Legs stout and dark brown, 
