OCR Text |
Show 1906.] NEW AFRICAN CURCULIONID/E. 919 with a fine abbreviated central stria; colour black, covered with dense grey or pinkish scaling and with very short subdepressed white seta?. Elytra ovate, jointly sinuate at base and slightly broader than the prothorax, but the margin not raised, sides slightly rounded, broadest about middle ; upper surface convex, gradually declivous behind, with regular and distinctly punctured striae; the intervals slightly convex, smooth, finely aciculate and with regular rows of short depressed white setae ; colour black, with dense even scaling, which is either pale grey mottled with pinkish brown, or greenish grey above turning to pink laterally. Legs with dense grey scaling and pale setae ; the two anterior pairs of tibiae crenulate internally, posterior pair smooth. M a s h o n a l a n d : Salisbury (G. A. K. M.). T ype $ in the British Museum. Very similar in general facies to the preceding species, but differing in important details, such as, the absence of the long-erect setae, the presence of the curved sulci 011 the rostrum, the non-plicate forehead, and the less deeply punctured and non-marginate elytra. P. palliatus Falir. is a more slender insect, with the anterior legs, and especially the tarsi, much longer; the elytra are truncate at the base and the rostrum has a short carina on each side of the central furrow. PlAZOMIAS PRATENSJS, S p . llOV. Long. 24-3^, lat. 1+-1-J mm. © 0 0 * o o Head broad, convex, coriaceous, and with a fine central stria, with dense scaling, which is dark brown above scattered with pale squamiform setae, and grey beneath and round the eyes. Rostrum as long as head and gradually narrowed from base to apex; upper surface with a central depression containing a distinct fovea which is usually connected with the cephalic stria; scaling as on head. Antennae piceous, similar to those of P. raricolor. Prothorax as long as broad, base truncate, apex scarcely narrower and slightly lobate, sides rounded, broadest at middle ; upper surface convex, with a distinct transverse impressed line just behind apex and a very fine central stria, which is often absent; colour black, with dense dark brown scaling and a sub-lateral and infra-lateral paler stripe on each side, also some scattered pale squamiform setae. Elytra subovate, the basal margin scarcely broader than the prothorax, truncate and not elevated, sides moderately rounded, broadest rather behind middle; upper surface convex, steeply declivous behind, with distinctly punctured striae, the intervals slightly convex, smooth, aciculate, and with rows of very short suberect pale setae; colour black, with dense dark brown scaling which is somewhat paler laterally. Legs with dense scaling and pale set* ; tibiae crenulate internally, except the posterior pair. M ashonaland : Salisbury (G. A. K. J/.). T ypes, £ in the British Museum, S in the Oxford Museum. Apart from its much smaller size, this insect differs from both P roc. Z ool. Soc.- 1906, No. LXI. 61 |