1900.] Catalogue of (he Colcoptcra of South Africa. 7 



entirely clothed with the scales ; head covered with deep round 

 punctures, mandibles a little more reflexed in the male, and the tooth 

 on the upper part is less apical and more conspicuous ; genae 

 produced into a very distinct lobe nearly in line at apex with the 

 anterior angle, projecting much, rounded in front, oblique laterally 

 truncate at base ; and having above the eye on each side a short 

 tuberculate ridge ; prothorax a little convex, rounded and slightly 

 ampliate on the sides ; it has, in the centre of the anterior part three 

 small tubercles arranged in a triangle, the sides are not obliquely 

 attenuate behind and the basal angle is sharp ; scutellum much 

 rounded at tip ; elytra convex, rounded behind, oblong, not broader 

 at base than the base of the prothorax, very closely and deeply 

 punctured ; under side deeply foveolato-punctate ; from each punc- 

 ture springs a short, greyish hair ; anterior tibiae irregularlj- 

 serrate but having two stronger teeth at apex ; intermediate 

 ones also pluri-serrate, posterior ones with only a spine beyond 

 the middle. 



I do not think that the female is yet known. Westwood thought 

 that the example he figured was a female, owing to the maxillge 

 being hooked — a constant feature of the female, I believe, in the 

 genus Dorcus, to which this species was at one time supposed to 

 belong — but I have ascertained that this character is also found in 

 the male, the only sex known to me. 



The vestiture of this insect varies very much. In some examples 

 there are on the prothorax four more or less rounded patches of 

 scales on each side, each patch set in a very shallow depression, 

 but there is always a more or less distinct squamose band along 

 the margins ; on the elytra the suture is generally denuded for the 

 greatest part of the length, and they have on each side two parallel, 

 median patches with an elongate one under the two, or five or six . 

 ill-defined ones on each side. 



Length 10-11 mm. ; width 4^-4f mm. 



Hab. Natal (Durban). 



Gen. XIPHODONTUS, Westw., 

 Entom. Magaz., v., 1838, p. 259. 



Mentum twice as broad as long, hardly concave, rounded laterally, 

 straight in front, apical joint of labial palpi longer than the other 

 two put together, deeply scooped beneath, last joint of maxillary 

 palpi one-third longer than the penultimate one and sub-cylindrical ; 



