OCR Text |
Show 1897.] PHYTOPHAGOUS COLEOPTERA OP APRICA. 533 punctures partly confluent, the interstices more or less transversely wrinkled, the posterior portion furnished with single rows of very short whitish stiff hairs, the suture towards the apex longitudinally depressed: the underside brighter metallic green, the sides of the breast clothed wdth long whitish pubescence, the other parts strongly punctured as well as the femora, the latter with a long and acute spine; the tibiae fulvous at their lower portion; tarsi piceous, the first joint more or less fulvous. Hab. Mashonaland (67. Marshall). Collection Brit. Mus. and my own. SCELODONTA YICINA, Har. Cupreous, finely pubescent above; thorax transversely strigose, with two purplish bauds ; elytra deeply foveolate-punctate and transversely reticulate, each wdth five irregularly shaped obscure purplish markings. Length 1| line. Head strongly and closely punctured, each puncture furnished with a whitish short seta, the middle of the front with a narrow longitudinal groove; clypeus punctured like the head; antennae metallic bluish black, the lower three or four joints cupreous; thorax subcylindrical, one-half broader than long, the sides 6trongly rounded and widened at the middle, if viewed from above, the surface strongly transversely strigose, the interstices deeply punctured, cupreous, the sides more or less distinctly marked with dark purplish in shape of an indistinct band; scutellum strongly punctured, the apex pointed at the middle ; elytra much wider at the base than the thorax, deeply foveolate-punctate throughout, tbe interstices transversely wrinkled, furnished with single white hairs, here and there arranged in rows, the apex with three short costae, one near the suture, one obliquely placed at the middle, and the third near the lateral margin, the bright cupreous colour of the disc interrupted by dark purplish markings, of which one is placed at the middle of the base, two nearly connected spots below the shoulders, a longitudinal narrow oblique band near the suture at the middle, and the other marks on the two lateral costae near the apex, all these markings are not well-defined but distinct; legs cupreous, tarsi black, femora with a small tooth ; the sides of the breast densely covered with light pubescence. Hab. Mashonaland (67. Marshall): collection British Museum. S. Africa (Holub): collect. Jacoby. Tbe species most nearly allied to the present one seems to be S. maculosa, Lefev., from the Zambesi; but the author describes the elytra as having but three fusco-aeneous spots and says nothing of their shape, nor does he mention the purplish bands of the thorax ; in other respects the two species seem nearly to agree. One specimen was sent home by Mr. Marshall; the other is contained in m y collection and was obtained by the African traveller Herr Holub. Both specimens agree in every particular. |