•526 T)-ansactions South African Philosophical Societij. [vol. xii. 



middle, and disappearing when tlie tubercle is developed into a short 

 horn, no frontal carina, genge reduced to a mere canthus ; antenna> 

 ten-jointed, club of moderate size ; prothorax rounded laterally and a 

 little ampliate at middle, convex, not marginate along the base, 

 simple, but occasionally excavated in front in the male (P. aries) ; 

 scutellum ogival, somewhat sharp at tip ; elytra a little broader than 

 the prothorax, a little sinuate laterally at about the median part and 

 slightly ampliate beyond that, they are feebly punctato-striate, the 

 strias are geminate and the intervals are plane and occasionally 

 punctate ; the pygidium is moderately convex past the median part 

 in both sexes, but in the females of P. aries and P. capicola there is a 

 median, transverse rounded carina overhanging respectively a depres- 

 sion or an excavation ; the propygidium has two series of oblique, 

 transverse stridulating ridges reaching from the base to half the 

 length of the segment, ^nd generally continued on the lower half as 

 very fine, interrupted, short and closely set folds divided l)y a tri- 

 angular, somewhat impressed punctate space in the shape of an 

 inverted cone ; last abdominal segment nearly entire ; metasternum 

 and prosternum similar in shape to that of the preceding genus ; 

 anterior tibiae strongly tri-dentate outwardly, and having one serrate 

 tooth above the digitation and occasionally another between the 

 basal and the second digit ; joints of anterior tarsi of male thickened, 

 penultimate one produced inwardly into a long, dentate process, last 

 joint as long as the three preceding, and somewhat swollen, inner 

 claw curved inwardly under the joint, laminate, and more or less 

 distinctly bifid at tip ; in the female the inner claw is a little more 

 robust than the outer. 



I separate the South African species from the European genus 

 Pentodon owing to the thickening of the joints of the anterior tarsi of 

 the male, and of the non-simple claws. In this genus the genital 

 armature is of two kinds ; the forcipate part is long and opens out- 

 wards, or is short and immovable. 



The insects included in this genus are occasionally met with 

 walking with difficulty on grassy plots either in the spring or after the 

 summer rains. The genus, as now restricted, does not seem to have 

 been met with in other parts of Africa. 



Key to the Species. 



A-. Anterior tibiae tri-dentate and with two serrate teeth. 

 B'^. Prothorax excavated in front in the male. 



Clypeus bi-dentate, cephalic horn conspicuous, recurved in 

 the naale ; pygidium in the female depressed under the 

 transverse ridge aries. 



