ANATONA. 115 



and extending beyond the hind angles. In the northern form the 

 latter generally stops at the angle and the discoidal spots are 

 absent. 



It is exceedingly abundant during the autumn rains in the 

 districts it inhabits. Mr, T, R, D, Bell records that upon the 

 day following a fall of rain he has found them swarming all over the 

 Khandesh plateau, flying in thousands close to the ground, over 

 the burnt grass, and making a humming noise like a swarm of bees, 

 which they very much resemble on the wing. The females burrow 

 into the ground and apparently deposit their eggs among the grass 

 roots, upon which no doubt the larvae feed. The beetles are also 

 sometimes found clinging together in clusters, in which the different 

 varieties occur together. 



91. Anatona alboguttata. 



Anatona alboguttata, Burm., Hanlb. Eat. iii, 1842, p. 504. 



Black, with the prothorax, scutellum and elytra opaque, and 

 the head, pygidium, legs and lower surface shining ; decorated 

 with the following white markings : — a mar- 

 ginal line on each side of the pronotum, a 

 narrow median line, not reaching the front 

 or hind margin and interrupted behind the 

 middle, and three spots placed in a longi- 

 tudinal line on each side ; the mesosternal 

 epimera and a spot at the apex of the 

 scutellum ; from six to eight on each ely- 

 tron and two on each side of the pygidium 

 (sometimes coalescing). A spot near the 

 extremity of each hind femur and patches at 

 Fig. 26. the sides of the sternum, hind cox« and 



Anatona alboguttata. abdomen are also white. 



This species is far larger than the other 

 two. It is of similar form, compact and convex. The head is 

 very small, finely granulated, clothed with long yellow hairs on 

 the forehead, with the clypeus strongly rounded from side to side, 

 but not carinated. and narrow but a little dilated in front. The 

 prothorax has the sides strongly rounded, the hind angles 

 moderately well-marked and the base feebly excised in the middle. 

 The scutellum is short, with the sides regularly rounded and the 

 apex blunt. The elytra are smooth, very scantily punctured, gently 

 sinuated at the outer edges and rather bluntly angulated at the 

 apices. The injgidmm is finely rugose and pubescent, the meta- 

 sternum coarsely rugose and pubescent at the sides and smooth in 

 the middle, and the abdomen almost smooth. The front tibia is 

 armed with three long and sharp teeth not standing far apart. 

 S . The abdomen is broadly excavated beneath. 

 Length 17-20 mm. ; breadth 9-10*o mm. 

 Madbas : Bangalore ; Deccan {teste Burmeister), 



i2 



