ART. III.-Description of two Hemipterous Insects. By Mr. ADAM WHITE, M.E.S., M.B.S.

Of the habits of the Hemiptera, except in one instance, little or nothing is known; a few scattered notices in Wolff's work and a paper by Hausmann being, as far as I am aware, nearly the sum and substance of what has been registered on the economy of an order of insects, numerous in species, ever varied in form, often most beautifully coloured, and frequently curiously sculptured. In the scutellated division, two species of which I intend to describe in this paper, an Indian species, Plataspis silphoides, (Tetyra silphoides, Fab.) is stated by M. Westermann of Copenhagen, to be found in great profusion in rice fields, upon the crops of which it is believed by the natives to commit great havoc.1

It would be difficult to find out the principles upon which entomologists have acted, in assigning the various terms of Scutellera, Tetyra, and Thyreocoris,-three generic names established in the same year, and evidently intended by their respective authors, Lamarck,2 Fabricius, 3 and Schrank+, to be applied to that one and the same group of insects, indicated by Linnæus in his 'Systema Naturæ' as Cimices scutellati; scutello longitudine abdominis". Had those succeeding naturalists, who have adopted all three names in their divisions (rendered necessary by the discovery of many new species), proceeded upon the plan laid down by some scientific legislators, of considering the first species described as the type of the genus, the matter would have been set at rest; Cimex nobilis, L., in that case, would have been universally regarded as the type of Scutellera; Cimex imperialis, Fabr., the type of Tetyra; and the beautifully marked Cim. lineatus, L., would have settled down as the Thyreocoris lineata of Schrank.

Dr. Leach, however, applied the first of these names to the set of insects to which Cim. nobilis, signatus, &c. belong; the second to the species lineatus, maurus, fuliginosus, inunctus, scarabaoides and their allies; while he restricted the name Thyreocoris to Schrank's last species the Cimex globus,

1 Silbermann, 'Revue Entomologique,' I. 3e livr. p. 111. 2 Syst. des Animaux sans Vert. p. 293, (Paris, 1801). Systema Rhyngotorum, p. 128, (ed. Brunsvigæ, 1803. Í have never seen the 1st edition of this work, referred to by Cuvier in the alphabetical table of authors, given in the Règne Animal,' and by Percheron in his Bibliographie Entomologique, as being published in 1801).

4 Fauna Boica, II. abth. 1, p. 67, (Ingolstadt, 1801).

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Fabr. He did not include, as Burmeister and Germar do, the broad-headed insects, closely allied to the globus division, in his genus Thyreocoris, for we find him shortly afterwards publishing in the appendix to 'Bowdich's Mission to Ashantee' a large red-spotted black species as the Canopus punctalus. Wolff regarded the Tetyra lateralis, Fabr., 'Icones Cimicum', tab.17, fig. 169, a species near the Tet. Scarabæoides as the type of the genus Thyreocoris,-see his posthumous MSS. published by his father in the preface to the 5th fascicle of his elaborate and indispensable work. By Burmeister,3 Spinola and Germar,' all three terms are employed, though in many instances in different acceptations.

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Hope, Hahn, and Laporte reject, and perhaps very properly, the names of Tetyra and Thyreocoris; the two first give the name to that division to which the first species to be described belongs, while Laporte applies to the genus the name of Graphosoma. I follow the example of Laporte, Spinola, and partly of Germar in the application of the name, for though Lamarck afterwards quoted the Cimex lineatus as forming part of his genus Scutellera, (Hist. Nat. des Anim. sans Vert. iii. p. 491) his originally described character of the scutellum entirely covering the hemelytra, would have excluded it. (Systême des Anim. &c. p. 293.)

With regard to the second species, I follow Laporte, Spinola and Westwood, in giving the generic name of Coptosoma, Laporte, to that small-headed, 2-jointed-tarsus division, of which Cimex globus is the type, while to the broad-headed

1 Zoological Miscellany, vol. I. p. 36 (1814).—The Doctor's MSS. in a very useful compendium of British Annulosa, published by Mr. Samouelle. Encyc. Edin. vol. ix. quoted by Mr. Stephens in the second part of his Systematic Catalogue, p. 338.

2 P. 496 (Appendix No. 4). Mr. G. R. Gray has published a figure and description of this species in the 2nd vol. of Griffith's Translation of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, p. 233, pl. 92, fig. 2. It may be mentioned that it is in the 4th Appendix of Bowdich's Mission that Leach instituted the genera Tefflus and Petrognatha, the Carabus Meyerlei, Fabr. being the type of the former, and the Lamia gigas, Fabr. of the latter; so that the name Omacantha of Serville must give place to Petrognatha on the score of priority, Bowdich's Mission having been published in 1819, and the 4th volume of the Annales de Soc. Entom. de France, containing Serville's distinguished labours, in 1835.

3 Handbuch &c. ii. 1 abth. Berlin, 1835.

4 Essai sur les genres d'Insectes appartenants a l'ordre des Hemipteres, &c. Genes. 1837.

5 Zeitschrift fur die Entomologie, heft 1, 1839.

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Catalogue of Hemiptera, London, 1838.

7 Essai &c. in Guerin's Magasin de Zool. 1832.
8 Wanzenartigen Insecten, Nurnberg, 1831.

division, Laporte's name Platycephala would be applied, were it not that, as Mr. Westwood has pointed out, the name has been pre-occupied; I am rather inclined to think that Serville's Brachyplatys is synonymous with Laporte's genus, in which case Mr. Westwood's name Plataspis must be rejected, on the score of its being given after the publication of Boisduval's 'Faune Entomologique de l'Ocean Pacifique,' p. 627, 1832.

Boisduval, in the work mentioned above, remarks that the extremity of the scutellum in the male of Brachyplatys is notched, Mr. Westwood however, in his excellent paper on Coptosoma, published in the 2nd vol. of this series, has pointed out that it is the female that is so distinguished; the transverse folding of the anterior wings seems to me, to be implied by Burmeister in his expression "die Haut zurneckgeschlagen," as is the occurrence of two joints only to the tarsus. My inexperienced eyes can only detect four joints to the antennæ in the species described below, but this, added to the female having a blunt clypeus, as well as notched scutellum, and both sexes having the femora much compressed, as well as the last joints of the antennæ, which are also hairy, with a few other rostral characters, may perhaps indicate that the insect is entitled to generic separation; but I am unwilling at present to give a name, lest it should be afterwards quoted as among the things that were.

I cannot see how Hahn and Spinola can possibly apply the term Thyreocoris to a division, not a species of which is quoted by Schrank as belonging to his genus. I am then of opinion that the Tetyra scarabaoides, lateralis and helopioides, three species figured by Wolff, as well as many of, if not all, the species included by Germar in his definition of the genus Odontoscelis, the type of which as given by Laporte himself in his Essai' p. 74, is the Tetyra fuliginosa of Fabr., (Ursocoris fuliginosus) Hahn, Arctocoris fuliginosus, Germar, (p. 47.) I propose to name the genus (which seems almost as peculiar to the new world, as Coptosoma and Plataspis are to the old) Corimelæna, the type being the Tetyra lateralis of Fabr. and Cor. scarabeoides, helopioides, nitiduloides and albipennis, being included in it; it is unnecessary to take up space in describing the characters, as they are already done in such an able manner by Professor Germar, in his Zeitschrift,' I. pp. 36 and 37. Our first species, Graphosoma Wilsoni, the specific character, merely, of which is given beneath, comes near the G. semipunctatum of authors, from

1 Mag. Nat. Hist. New Series, ii. pp. 28, 29.

which however, it is abundantly distinct. In the elongated form of the head and scutellum, as well as in having the sides of the scutellum distinctly sinuated in the middle, it more nearly approaches a species from Teneriffe, in the collection of the British Museum, to which I applied the name Gar. interruptum, in a paper on several new genera and species of Hemiptera, read several months ago before the Entomological Society.

f

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a, Graphosoma Wilsoni, magnified. c, Plataspis (?) coracina, fem. magnified e, part of upper side of head &c. of female.

b, Ditto, lateral view, natural size.
d, lateral view, natural size.
f, head of male, viewed from above.

I characterize my species as follows:

Graphosoma Wilsoni, n. sp. fig. 68, a.

G. sanguineum, thorace punctis 8 distinctis, striâque posticâ laterali, nigris; scutello basi punctis 4 nigris, lateralibus elongatis et acuminatis ; subtus flavum (in spec. mortuis) nigro punctatum. Long. lin. 6.

Hab. in Persiâ.

In Mus. Dom. Wilson, Edinensis, naturæ, insectorum præsertim, scrutatoris diligentissimi, et Entomologiæ Edinensis' cum Dom. Duncan, auctoris.

This species was brought over by Mr. Wilson's brotherin-law, Sir John MacLean, along with many other fine insects and spiders, for the opportunity of examining and describing which, I am indebted to the great kindness of Mr. Wilson.

The second species may be thus described:

Plataspis (?) coracina, n. sp. fig. 68, c.

P. æneo-nigra, nitida (pectoreque solum fuliginoso), thoracis lateribus hemelytrorumque basi, abdominisque lateribus fulvo angustè marginatis. Mas, clypeo anticè rotundato,long. lin. 5.

Fœm.

truncato.

Hab. in Javâ. In Mus. Doctoris Greville, 'Scottish Cryptogamic Flora' celeberrimi auctoris, tum insectorum tum plantarum studiosissimi.

I have alluded above to a paper on Hemiptera, as yet unpublished; I subjoin the characters there given of the

Graphosoma interruptum.

G. nigrum, thorace lineis tribus, dorsali solum elongato, arcubus partis posterioribus flavis (in vitâ rubris?), scutello lineis tribus, margineque tenui flavis.

I subjoin also the characters of a few of the other species there described, expecting the Society to publish my figures and particular descriptions.

Of the Cimex costatus of Fabricius, a species seemingly unknown on the continent, I have made a genus, which, to the remarkably raised edges of the canal for the beak, so prominent in the genus Solenosthedium of Spinola, Coeloglossa of Germar, (both founded by their respective authors on the same species, the Cimex lynceus of Fabricius, figured in Coquebert's Illustr. Iconogr. tab. 10, fig. 7), adds a thorax semicircularly dilated behind, as well as other characters to be pointed out elsewhere.

I name it Coleotichus, the species Col. costatus, the original specimen of which is still to be seen in the Banksian collection of insects, bequeathed to the Linnean Society. In the British Museum cabinet there are two specimens of this rare insect, presented by Mr. Children, the officer of the zoological department. Mr. Shuckard tells me he has a second species in his collection, but this I have not yet seen.

Another elongated thick species, kindly lent me by Mr. Newman from the valuable collection of the Entomological Club, would enter, I believe, into Germar's genus Calliphara, but not having the specimen beside me, I cannot exactly make out whether it may not more properly belong to Scutellera. Its specific character may be given as follows.

Calliphara (Scutellera?) bifasciata, n. sp.

C. luteo-aurantiaca; antennis, capite, thoracis fasciâ posticâ transversâ, scutelli maculâ dorsali fasciâque post medium transversâ, tibiisque, cærulescenti-viridibus. Long. lat.

Hab. in insulâ Maris Pacifici Dom. Newman ignotâ.

An elegant species sent by Mr. Daniel Wheeler to the Entomological Club.

Another species, placed by me in Laporte's genus Calidea (Callidea Burm. and Germ.), I characterize as follows; it is a most beautiful species, but the antennæ unfortunately are wanting.