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Show 1899.] PHYTOPHAGOUS COLEOPTERA OF AFRICA. 359 Length 5 millim. Head and palpi flavous, the former impunctate; antennas extending beyond the middle of the elytra, black, the lower four joints flavous, basal joint slender, second very short, third strongly dilated and excavated at its apex, fourth much shorter and widened into a tooth at the upper edge, the other joints slender ; thorax transverse, with rounded sides, the disc with a deep transverse sulcus, interrupted at the middle, remotely punctured at the anterior portion only, flavous ; scutellum subquadrate, flavous, deeply excavated, the sides raised into high ridges ; elytra rather strongly depressed below the base, the basal portion near the scutellum raised and furnished with a small fulvous tubercle on each elytron, rest of the surface with a few fine punctures only, black, very shining; abdomen flavous, trilobate at the last segment, the middle lobe much broader than long, flat; all the tibias mucronate, claws deeply bifid. Hab. Cameroons (Conrad). The single male specimen Avhich I received from Dr. Kraatz is readily distinguished by the structure of the scutellum, in which it nearly agrees Avith Aulacophora scutellata Baly ; but in that species the antennae are simple, the shape of the scutellum is different, and the abdomen is not flavous. ASBECESTA DUVIYIERI, Sp. n. Black, the basal joints of the antennas and the legs flavous ; thorax nearly impunctate, flavous; elytra closely and distinctly punctured, flavous, margined with black. Length 5 millim. Head black, impunctate, the frontal tubercles and the clvpeus strongly raised ; antennas not extending to the middle of the elytra, the lower five or six joints flavous, the rest black, the terminal tAvo joints much more elongate than the others, third and fourth joints equal. Thorax one-half broader than long, the sides rounded, the basal sulcus strongly marked, the surface with a few minute punctures here and there ; scutellum black ; elytra longitudinally depressed near the lateral margins and with another shorter depression at the sides, rather strongly and closely punctured, flavous, all the margins rather broadly black, the humeral callus also with a short blackish mark within ; beloAv black, the legs flavous. Hab. Moliro, Congo (J. Duvivier) (Belgian Mus. collection and m y own). Much smaller and narrower than A. marginata, the underside black not flavous, and the elytral margins more broadly black, the legs unicolorous. ASBECESTA MARGINATA, sp. n. (Plate XXI. fig. 5.) Flavous, the antennas, the apex of the tibias, and the tarsi black, the head and thorax with a black spot; elytra closely and finely punctured, testaceous, narrowly margined Avith black. 24* |
