256 Transactions South African Pliilosopliical Society, [vol. xii. 



nate at tip, and having no frontal carina, but instead a short, 

 tubercuhforni tooth in the vertex whicli in the female is more 

 truncate and assiunes sometimes the shape of a short lamina, the 

 whole surface is distinctly scabrose ; prothorax convex, moderately 

 abruptly declivous in front, not marginate along the base the median 

 part of which is sharply aculeate, covered with elongate, very 

 closely set tubercles which are, however, replaced by deep, closely set 

 punctures in the middle of the posterior part, and at the apex of the 

 declivity are two small blunt tubercles which coalesce often in the 

 female but are separate in the male ; elytra ampliato-ovate, narrowl}' 

 geminato-striate, striae closely punctured, intervals closely and deeply 

 pitted, plane, second one very little broader than the third, humeral 

 callus distinct ; pygidium closely granulose and moderately pubescent ; 

 metasternum aculeate at tip and having in the centre a long, triangular 

 smooth space without any longitudinal impressed line ; anterior tibia^ 

 of male with a long inner spur of nearly half the length of the apical 

 outer tooth which is nearly straight ; the spur of the female is curved 

 inwardly at tip, but not at a sharp angle. 



Length 12-15 mm ; width 8-10 mm. 



In some examples the colour of the elytra is dark blue. 



Hab. Cape Colony (Port St. John), Natal (Durban, Frere, 

 Maritzburg, Estcourt), Transvaal (Lydenburg), Southern Ehodesia 

 (Salisbury, Buluvvayo). 



This species is also met with in Abyssinia and in the Congo Free 

 State. 



Onthophagus gemmatus, n. spec, 

 Plate XXXVI., fig. 14. 



Female : Head and prothorax coppery red with a green tinge 

 which is darker in the median part of the base, elytra dark green 

 with a bluish tinge ; palpi and antennae fiavescent ; head granular, 

 genae rounded, clypeus acuminate, not emarginate at tip, frontal 

 carina distinct, arcuate, vertex with a high transverse, median, 

 laminate carina emarginate in the centre and occupying half the 

 width of the vertex ; prothorax convex, declivous in the anterior 

 part, slightly impressed longitudinally in the centre of the disk and 

 having a faint trace in the anterior part of two small smooth 

 prominences and of a median apical smooth line, it is covered on 

 the sides and in front with closely set elongate granules, but from 

 the median part of tlie disk to the centre of the base, which is not 

 marginate and is sharply aculeate, there is a smooth space surrounded 

 by deep, closely set punctures ; elytra ampliato-ovate, deeply and 



