On Taeniodera quadrilineata and some allied species

It has been long evident to me, that several distinct species have been confused under the name of Macronota or Taeniodera quadrilineata , but owing to the want of sufficient material, I have hitherto been unable to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion regarding them. Recently however, by the acquisition of Mr. F. Moore’s collection of Cetoniidae, I have secured a good series of specimens from India, and by the courtesy of Mr. Ritsema I have obtained the loan of the various Javanese and Sumatran examples of this group contained in the collection of the Leyden Museum, These, together with other specimens to which J. have had access, have enabled me to recognize both sexes of no less than four species, all of which closely resemble one another in general form and coloration, but present structural and other characters by which they may be readily separated. The first of these species, quadrilineata Hope, was very briefly described in 1831 by that author in his Synopsis of Nepaul Insects [Gray’s Zool. Misc. p. 24 ¹)] under the name of » Trirhius” quadrilineatus. The original specimens from Major Hardwicke’s collection are in the British Museum, and one of them, bearing Hope’s label and evidently the specimen which served as his type, is an example of a common Indian species, in which the usual red ground color of the elytra is entirely replaced by black; this has enabled me to determine without doubt as to which species the name of quadrilineata should be applied.