382 Annals of the South African Museum. 



CRYPTUS BLANDITUS, Tosq. 

 Mem. Soc. Ent, Belg. 1896, p. 203, ? . 



One female captured at Bulawayo iu S. Khodesia in 1912 by 

 H. C. Pead. 



CRYPTUS SCURRILIS, Tosq. 

 Mem. Soc. Ent, Belg. 1896, p. 177, $. 



The ? has not hitherto been described. It differs from Tosquinet's 

 $ description only in having the face black, with its centre red ; the 

 clypeus, mandibles and external orbits immaculate black. Antennae 

 filiform and centrally white. The pleural ' sutures laterales ' and all 

 other white markings are wanting on the thorax and scutellum. 

 Segments one to five are dull black with only the apical angles of the 

 second obsoletely white-marked ; and the legs are much darker. The 

 elongate cheeks and frontal horn exclude this species from the 

 genus Crypt us, as restricted by Prof. Thomson. Dalla Torre is in 

 error in omitting the c from the specific name. Superficially this 

 insect bears a remarkable resemblance to Ctenochares blandita, Tosq. 



The male was from Senegal. W. E. Jones took this certainly 

 synonymous female at Mfongosi in Zululand during March, 1914. 



CRYPTUS VIDENDUS, sp. nov. 



J 1 only. A slender, black species with the legs except posterior 

 coxae red ; the facial orbits, a geiial mark, the mandibles except 

 apices, palpi, under side of scape, the postscutellum, apical half of 

 scutellum, and apices of the second to fourth and of the seventh 

 segments, white. Length, 9 mm. In structure, sculpture and outline, 

 it exactly agrees with the male of C. viduatorius, Fab., from which it 

 is only distinguished with facility by its much darker, bruuneous 

 wings with their stout nigrescent nervures, black stigma and larger, 

 nearly parallel- sided areolet. 



Captured at Kimberley by Bro. J. H. Power during 1912. 



CRYPTUS MAGNIFICUS, sp. uov. 



? only. A very large and very stout, brilliant metallic blue species, 

 with the head alone rufescent, the front legs nigrescent, and the evenly 

 inf uinate wings bearing strong iridescent cyaneous reflection. Length, 

 29 mm. ; terebra, 11 mm. Apart from its remarkable size and 

 colouration, this species, the largest Cryptid with which I am acquainted 

 from any part of the world, bears many characteristics to render it 

 most interesting ; thus the mouth is rostriformly produced as in 



