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Show 238 MR. M. JACOBY ON PHYTOPHAGOUS COLEOPTERA [Mar. 6» HlMERIDA CHAPUISI, Sp. U. Oblong-ovate, convex, below aeneous, clothed with white pubescence: above obscure cupreous, covered with white and fulvous scales, forming transverse bands ; antennae black ; femora armed with a strong tooth. Length 4| millim. Head broad, covered with white aud piceous scales, through which cupreous patches can here and there be distinguished. sparingly punctured, anterior edge of the clypeus deeply emarginate, labrum fulvous, palpi piceous ; antennae not extending much below the base of the thorax, black, the basal joint subquadrately thickened, the following four joints equal, the terminal five strongly widened ; thorax rather more than twice as broad as long, the lateral margins distinct at the base only, the median lobe moderately produced, the disc convex, exactly similarly covered with scales as tbe head, their colour white and dark brown; scutellum densely clothed with white scales, much broader than long, pentagonal; elytra very slightly wider than the thorax, similarly provided with scales, these forming three more or less distinct transverse irregular bands and more densely white patches at the sides and at the apex; legs piceous, clothed with white scales ; below densely clothed with white pubescence, the groundcolour (where visible) cupreous; prosternum much broader than long, claws bifid. Hab. Salisbury, Mashonaland, on mimosa (67. Marshall). The general broadly ovate shape of this insect, its scale-like pubescence, the thickened terminal joints of the antennae, concave anterior margin of the thoracic episternum, & c seem to me to place this species in Chapuis's genus Himera, changed later by Lefevre to Himerida. The only species of the genus, of which a two-line description is given by the author, seems closely allied to the present one, and it is just possible that the latter is identical with the type ; but Chapuis gives the basal joints of the antennae as ferruginous, which is not the case in the four specimens before me, and says nothing of white scales forming bands, although the latter are sometimes very indistinct; the inner divisions of the claws are very small. ODONTIOMORPHA, gen. nov. Body ovately subquadrate, glabrous above; antennae with widened terminal joints ; thorax transverse, with a distinct transverse sulcus; elytra convex, punctured in semiregular rows ; femora with a very minute tooth, the intermediate tibiae emarginate at the apex ; tarsi short, triangular; claws appendiculate ; prosternum broad, subquadrate, its base truncate; the anterior margin of the thoracic episternum concave. The only group, according to Lefevre's or Chapuis's arrangement, which the present small species could enter would be the Odon-tionopincs, which contains at present three genera, all inhabiting |
