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Show 1897.] PHYTOPHAGOUS COLEOPTERA OF AFRICA. 261 extending to the second row of punctures, the lateral bands occupying four rows of punctures but of the same width as the sutural band, wdth the margins more regular and less dentate than in the last named, the lateral margin also more or less black posteriorly; underside black, more or less marked with flavous ; legs flavous, the femora often partly black or fulvous ; prosternum broad, flavous, impunctate; pygidium black, its apex more or less fulvous. Hah. Natal, Estcourt (67. Marshall). A pretty species allied to 67. vlttlger, Suffr., and C. contrarius, Chap., in coloration, but differing in the closely punctured head and the pale margins or stripes surrounding the eyes, and in the yellow clypeus : the stripes of the elytra are also differently shaped; but the amount of black at the underside and of the thorax is very variable, in one specimen the black bands of the latter are nearly united at the middle by a narrow transverse streak, leaving a fulvous patch at the base which is again divided by a central short narrow streak of piceous ; the antennas are also variable in colour. C. vlttlger has an entirely black head, the elytral bands are differently shaped, and the underside also varies. CRYPTOCEPHALUS ALLUAUDI, n. sp. Black and yellow ; head with two fulvous spots on the vertex ; thorax impunctate, black, the sides, anterior margin, and a spot at the base yellow ; elytra strongly punctate-striate, black, a narrow sutural and a broad lateral band yellow; legs flavous. Var. Elytra black, the shoulders and the apex with a short yellow spot. Length 1 line. Of posteriorly slightly narrowed shape ; the head rather closely punctured at the middle, black, the vertex with two obscure fulvous spots ; the clypeus, a narrow space in front of the eyes, and the labrum yellow ; antennas extending slightly beyond the middle of the elytra, the lower five joints flavous, the others black, the basal joint much thickened, the third and fourth equal, the terminal joints gradually but rather strongly incrassate; thorax twice as broad as long, strongly narrowed in front, the sides straight or very nearly so, with a narrow reflexed margin, the angles not prominent, the surface nearly impunctate, a few scarcely-perceptible punctures only being visible under a strong lens, black, the anterior margin narrowly, a broad band at the sides and a square-shaped spot in front of the scutellum yellow ; scutellum rather broad, its apex truncate, yellow, narrowly margined with black ; elytra narrowed posteriorly, wdth deep rows of punctures, distinct to the apex, the interstices slightly transversely wrinkled here and there, the colour black, a narrow, anteriorly widened sutural stripe, not extending to the apex, and a broad band at the sides not extending to the margins nor to the apex, but of variable width, yellow; underside finely pubescent, black ; the prosternum, mesosternum, the last abdominal segment, and the legs flavous, the latter rather darker; prosternum subquadrate, its base slightly |
