OCR Text |
Show 1880.] PHYTOPHAGOUS COLEOPTERA. 173 first sight recognized by the white frontal patch of the head, which is peculiar to all the species at present known. Von Harold has pointed out recently the other distinguishing characters, as the elongate metatarsus, the little-developed encarpae, and the not tooth-like produced anterior angles of the thorax. 14. HOMOPHCETA AFFINIS, sp. nov. Elongate, subparallel. Black beneath; above yellowish white, more or less intermixed with rufous ; a spot before and another below the middle dark brown. Length 4-4\ lines. Hab. Capetillo, Duenas, Guatemala. As this species resembles in most respects H. militaris, it will be sufficient to point out the differences only. The antennae in the present species are more robust, the joints less elongate and filiform ; the thorax has the anterior angles greatly thickened, and the sides are much more distinctly margined than in H. militaris; the elytra are more convex in the latter species as well as dilated, while in the present insect they are more parallel. The spots on the same parts are also differently placed and of different shape, the basal spot of H. militaris having its place in II. afilnis before the middle and nearer the suture, at the same time being obliquely shaped and, as well as the posterior one, of a brown instead of a black colour. The rufous colour is more visible near the base and lateral margins, not extending so m u c h near the suture as in militaris. In other respects there is no difference between the two insects. Collections of Godman and Salvin and Jacoby. 15. HOMOPHOSTA BIT^ENIATUS, sp. nov. (Plate XVIII. fig. 3.) Elongate, parallel. Flavous; breast, legs, and antennae black ; above shining purplish or bluish black ; thorax and two transverse bands on the elytra yellowish white. Length 3\ lines. Hab. Cayenne, Bolivia. Head black, with the usual light frontal patch and the clypeus of the same colour, sparingly punctate near the eyes; labrum and palpi flavous, the former with a few long white hairs ; antennae as long as half the body, with the third joint the longest; basal joint flavous beneath. Thorax three times as broad as long ; sides nearly straight at the base, rounded towards the apex ; lateral margins greatly thickened at the anterior angles, the latter produced to nearly the extent of the eyes ; anterior and posterior margins straight; surface impunctate. Scutellum black. Elytra parallel, not visibly punctured, of a splendid dark purplish or bluish colour, with a very regularly-shaped transverse band in the middle, and another narrower one, slightly curved, near the apex, light flavous. Breast and legs (base of the" latter being sometimes flavous) black ; abdomen flavous. Collection of Jacoby. |