t 



Mr. A. Murray's Monograph of the genus Catops. 151 



variety to its proper species. These are the colour of the elytra 

 and of its bloom, and the colour of the pubescence at the base 

 of the elytra. There are also other characters, which, although 

 they vary in individual species on the one side or other, are on 

 the whole pretty constant. The antennae of chrysomeloides are 

 almost invariably considerably thicker than in tristis, and the 

 last joint longer. The pubescence of the thorax (except in the 

 same variety) is browner than in tristis, and, except in the var. 

 rotundicollis of tristis, is more coarsely granulated. The form of 

 the apex of the elytra, except in the same variety, is also rounder 

 in chrysomeloides than in tristis, 



Var. E. C. rotundicollis, Kellner. 



C. rotundicollis, Kellner, Stett. Ent. Zeit. viii. 176. 2 ; Redt. Fn. Aust. 771 ; 

 Kraatz, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xiii. 434. 19 ; Fairm. & Laboulb. Fn. Ent. 

 Fr. i. 302. 



Ovatus, nigro-fuscus ; antennis obsolete clavatis ; t?- i q 

 pedibus rufo-piceis j thorace transverso subru- ^^' 



guloso, lateribus fortiter rotundatis,angulis pos- 

 ticis rectis; elytris apice obsoletissime striatis. 



Long, i^ lin. 



The antennse are scarcely so long as the head 

 and thorax, thickened towards the point, reddish 

 brown, lighter at the base. The head and thorax 

 are densely punctate, or rather granulated and 

 densely covered with yellowish grizzly hairs ; the 

 latter is strongly rounded on the sides, most so towards the 

 front, narrowed behind, the anterior angles rounded, the pos- 

 terior angles almost pointed and right-angled, the posterior 

 margin cut straight, and slightly sinuated on both sides near 

 the scutellum. The elytra are oval, a little convex, densely and 

 finely punctate, indistinctly striated, with a bluish or purplish 

 bloom or hoar-frost on them, and also with yellowish hairs par- 

 ticularly at the base, and are narrowed to a point at the apex. 

 The legs are brownish red, the feet lighter. 



This variety or species is found along with tristis and grandi- 

 collis, but it is not without hesitation that I remove it from the 

 list of distinct species. The characters, however, which distin- 

 guish it being all variations in degree, and at times approaching 

 more or less to the type of tristis, I have come to look upon it as 

 a variety of that species. It is well known that carcase-feeding 

 beetles are always more subject to variation than others, owing 

 to the chance of the food of the larvae becoming exhausted before 

 they are full fed. This species may be a starved variety. The 

 particulars however by which it is most readily distinguished 



