HYPOCEPHALUS. 
39 
ceous tegument so well exhibited in most species of Prionidse. I 
assert that an entomologist who knows nothing of the whole animal 
except an elytrum, must be convinced by the sculpture that it is 
part of a prionideous insect. I regret that we have not examined 
the wings, because these organs, according to my observations, 
afford the best family characters in the majority of the Coleoptera, 
and I recommend you to examine them*. 
“ The legs present stronger grounds of disputation ; and I con¬ 
cede that the incrassated femora and incurved tibim are different 
from the type of the family ; but this single character will not 
suffice to remove Hypocephalus from Prionus, because we find 
in other genera singular forms of legs as in Psalidognathus, Amallo- 
podes and Trictenotoma. From this last genus, which in my 
opinion is also prionideous, Hypocephalus derives its tarsi, except 
those of the posterior legs, which are only four-jointed in Tricteno¬ 
toma. The tarsi of Amallopodes are still more like those of 
Hypocephalus, except that the penultimate joint is much smaller, 
thus scarcely receding from the type of the family, as is the case 
in Trictenotoma and Hypocephalus. 
“ In the last place the observation that Hypocephalus lives in 
rotten w r ood, upon the ground in forests, accords with my opinion of 
its natural affinities.” 
Since the arrival of Professor Burmeister in Paris, he has 
informed me that M. Guerin Meneville had likewise already 
entertained the same opinion relative to its relation with the 
Prionidse, and had prepared a series of figures illustrating its 
various organs in detail. Notwithstanding the various anomalies 
exhibited by the genus noticed by Burmeister (to which we may 
add the want of emargination in the eyes), I must confess that the 
relation pointed out in the preceding communication appears to me 
to be the correct one +. It may further be mentioned that the 
peculiar toothing of the anterior tibise occurs in the Australian Pri- 
* The insect is totally destitute of wings.—J. O. W. 
+ Desmarcst thinks it nearest to Necrophorus amongst the Clavicorn Pentamera (such also 
Mr. Melly informs me is the opinion of Dr. Klug), whilst Gistl considers it as forming the 
passage between the Lamcllicoms and Melasomatous Hetcromcra. In ray “ Introduction ” I 
suggested that the nearest relations appeared to be such genera as Passandra, Catogenus, 
Rhysodes, and Calodromus, which appear to me to connect the Cucujidre with the Brenthida. 
In these genera the formation of the tarsi is moro or less anomalous, so that wc are not on that 
account to reject this relation. In Passandra, &c., tho sides of the head beneath are developed 
into two flat plates (analogous to the deflexed horns of Hypocephalus). There is also an 
apparent approximation to the general form of this genus exhibited by various male Brenthida, 
which have thick'denticulated feet and short moniliform antenna, but the structure of the mouth 
and of the tarsi is very different. 
