200 
MEMBRA C1DAE. 
substance of the last author’s diagnosis of the genus : head a little foliaceous, bi- 
lobed. Prothorax variable in form, dilated, impressed or even foliaceous, “ echancre 
au dessus de l’ecusson; ” elytra large; nervures touching the posterior border ; 
“ trois cellules basilaires, une cellule discoidale, les posterieures oblique, jambes pris- 
matiques, tibias comprimes,” &c. 
Still subdivides Lycoderes on account of the forms of the pronota and the number 
of apical areas. 
Brazil furnishes many species of this genus. 
Lycoderes shows a tendency to bright colouring more than most genera of the 
family. Prof. Poulton thinks that any hereditary bias in this respect towards an 
ancestral colouring would be detrimental to the individual; as making the species 
difficult to adapt itself to a new environment. Yet this adaptive power may be 
strong in some species and absent in others, even under the same environment. 
There are several secondary causes for the colours of insects : some are chemical, 
such as the transparent stains in chitine ; some are due to deposited pigments, which 
can be acted on by light, of the character of chlorophyl and erythrophyl; others are 
due to the interference of light caused by the thin stratum of air imprisoned and 
refracted between two transparent films, as in the hues of some butterflies. But 
though the direct cause of the elaboration of the colour of plants and insects appears 
to be as yet beyond our ken, the fact that colours are fixed and located in definite 
patterns must call for attention in any classification of species. 
LYCODERES IGNIVENTER, n.s. 
(Plate XLIY. figs. 2, 2a, 2b.) 
Pronotum swelled above the metopidium into a small knob, from which rises a 
short straight process, cleft and twisted at the summit. From this same knob 
proceeds a nearly straight dorsal horn, acute at the end, with an angular swelling, 
which is free above the abdomen and allows a view of the small scutellum. Abdomen 
bright orange, with red edges to the somites ; apex of the female genital apparatus, 
black ; tegmina rounded at the tips, with the basal parts dense and punctured. A 
clear trapezoidal spot, tinged with red and with a brown bar, occurs on the posterior 
costal portion ; legs rather slender and not flattened. 
Size expanded, 15x8 mm. 
Habitat. —Brazil. 
From the Miers Collection. 
LYCODERES B URMEISTERI, Fairm. 
(Plate XLIV. figs. 1, la, lb.) 
Fairm. l.c. PI. III. fig. 28, p. 525. Enchenopci fissci , Walk. l.c. p. 485. E. Iceta, Walk. l.c. p. 494. 
Piceons; pronotum seen from the back fusiform, pointed at both ends and 
