OCR Text |
Show 114 MR. M. JACOBY ON THE [Feb. 1, METRIOIDEA RUFIPENNIS, sp. nov. (Plate XI. fig. 8.) Oblong ; black ; head, antennae, and legs fulvous ; thorax greenish black, obsoletely depressed ; elytra rufous, very finely punctured. 6 . Face deeply excavated ; the third joint of the antennae curved and produced at the apex. Length 3 lines. Head rufous at the vertex, impunctate, deeply transversely grooved between the eyes ; lower part of the face deeply excavated, the excavation bounded at the sides and above by several lobes which protrude beyond the impressed portion; the clypeus thickened; palpi moderately incrassate at the penultimate joint. Antennae nearly as long as the body, fulvous, the second joint very short, the third curved and widened into a tooth at the apex, nearly as long as the following joints, the apical joints more slender than the rest. Thorax about one half broader than long, narrowed towards the base, greenish black, shining, the surface with an obsolete transverse depression at the sides near the base, impunctate. Scutellum rufous. Elytra very finely and rather closely punctured, rufous, their epipleurae continued below the middle ; tibiae unarmed, the first joint of the posterior tarsi as long as the two following joints together. Claws appendiculate The anterior coxal cavities closed. Kandy. I have placed this species, of which I have evidently only the male insect before me, in the present genus on account of the closed coxal cavities, unarmed tibiae, and the appendiculate claws; the proportionate length of the joints of the antennae is, however, different than in Metrioidea, and it is possible that the present species is representative of a new genus. OCHRALEA CEYLONICA, Harold (?). Dikoya. The descriptions of two species of Ochralea from Ceylon have been published by von Harold. With one of these the insect which I refer to the present species agrees in the main points. It is, however, smaller by one millimetre ; the antennse, with the exception of the two basal joints are fuscous, not testaceous, the third joint being slightly longer than the second. The elytra have the sides more or less stained with obscure fulvous, and the punctuation is exceedingly close, and consists of larger and smaller punctures. Without examining the type of O. ceylonica contained in the Berlin Museum, it is impossible to say whether the specimens before me represent that or an allied species. In regard to the genus Ochralea, Mr. Baly has drawn m y attention to the state of the anterior coxal cavities, which according to Chapuis are supposed to be closed. A careful examination of several specimens proves this, however, to be erroneous, as the cavities are distinctly open. This character and the prolonged elytral epipleurae will not allow Ochralea, according to Mr. Baly's opinion, to be separated from Luperodes, a genus which seems also to possess open cavities, although I have considered the latter in Luperodes as being closed. The whole question of open or |