OCR Text |
Show 1905.] OP PHYTOPHAGOUS COLEOPTERA. 409 elytra with the basal portion rather convex, impunctate, metallic blue, the lateral margins and a rather narrow transverse band at the middle testaceous, epipleurje of the latter colour; below and the legs black; metatarsus rather elongate, claw-joint scarcely swollen. Hab. Peru. The black band of the thorax and the strongly dentate and produced anterior angles of the latter, together with the nearly simple claw-joint, principally characterise this species. Elytra metallic, with flavous margins. A sphcera a l b ic in c t a , sp. n . (Plate XIV. fig. 4 .) Black, thorax pale flavous, impunctate; elytra metallic blue, the disc foveolate and rugose, the lateral margins yellowish-white; abdomen flavous. Length 9-10 millim. Of ovately-elongate shape, rounded below the middle ; the head black, with some few punctures near the eyes, longitudinally grooved between the latter ; antennae extending to the middle of the elytra, black, the third, fourth, and fifth joints equal, the following ones shorter; thorax with gradually flattened sides, the anterior margin deeply concave, anterior angles slightly produced into a small tooth, thickened, the disc entirely impunctate, pale yellowish ; scutellum black ; elytra bright metallic blue or purplish, variolose-punctate, the interstices strongly wrinkled or rugose, the lateral margins to the apex whitish ; breast and legs black; metatarsus elongate, claw-joint slightly swollen; abdomen flavous. Hab. Peru. Of the same coloration as Asphcera (Aspicelci) albomarginata Latr., and of nearly similar sculpturing, but a true Asphcera (like the last-named species) on account of the metasternum not being truncate anteriorly; in Latreille's insect the thorax is margined with black and the elytral fovese are larger and less numerous. Elytra variously coloured, with transverse pale bands or with spots. ASPHCERA BISBIPLAGIATA, Sp. n . Obscure fulvous or fuscous, the head and the antennae black ; thorax yellowish white ; elytra impunctate, each with two white bands, one transversely shaped at the middle, the other more rounded near the apex. Length 7 millim. Head with some deep punctures near the eyes, the vertex nearly black, the frontal elevations bounded behind by a very deep transverse groove ; base of the antenna? flavous, the basal twTo joints piceous, the others black ; thorax with the anterior margin straight, the sides not flattened, but the lateral margins gradually |