| OCR Text |
Show 1897.] PHYTOPHAGOUS COLEOPTERA OF AFRICA. 575 margin, both abbreviated behind, but the sublateral stripe extending to the base ; head and thorax fulvous. Var. b. The head and thorax black; the elytra with a black sutural stripe, widened into a square-shaped spot below the middle, the sides and apex likewise narrowly black. Var. c. Elytra marked like var. b, but the sutural stripe connected by a transverse band below the middle with the lateral stripe. Var. d. Head black, the base fulvous; thorax fulvous, elytra entirely black. Var. e. Head and thorax fulvous ; elytra black, the apex fulvous. There are, besides these forms, still others iu which the elytra are black with a fulvous spot at the middle and another at the apex; this latter variety seems identical with Monolepta elegans, Add., but the author gives the head, thorax, and underside as fulvous. In all the above forms the underside is black, as well as the four posterior femora; the anterior legs in nearly all are fulvous, but sometimes the posterior tibiae and tarsi are black as well; the elytral epipleuras are continued below the middle. PLATYXANTHA (?) ABDOMINALIS, U. Sp. Below black, above testaceous, the terminal joints of the antennas, the apex of the tibiae, and the tarsi black ; thorax scarcely perceptibly, elytra very finely and closely punctured; last abdominal segment flavous. Length 2|-3 lines. Of elongate parallel shape ; the head impunctate, the frontal elevations strongly raised, trigonate ; clypeus triangular, in shape of a transverse ridge; labrum and palpi flavous ; antennas slender, extending to two-thirds the length of the elytra, black, the lower four joints flavous, basal joint slightly curved, second very short, third slightly shorter than the fourth joint, the rest nearly equal in length; thorax subquadrate, scarcely one-half broader than long, the sides straight, slightly narrowed at the base, the angles in shape of a small tubercle, the anterior ones oblique and produced outwards, the surface rather depressed, extremely minutely and closely punctured, testaceous ; elytra wider at the base than the thorax, with a depression bounding the shoulders within, tbe surface as closely and scarcely more strongly punctured than the thorax, their epipleuras broad and extending beyond the middle; legs fulvous ; the tibiae unarmed, their apex black as well as the tarsi, their first joint as long as the following two joints together ; breast and abdomen black, the last segment flavous ; anterior coxal cavities closed. Hah. Mashonaland (67. Marshall). Of the three specimens obtained, one has the breast black only and the legs are entirely fulvous : this specimen is a male; it differs in no other way from the others except being rather smaller. The species is one of the few in which the thorax shows no sign of a depression. 38* |
