1902.] Cataloijitc of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 621 



abdominal segments shining, glabrous except for a transverse row 

 of setigerous punctures ; mesosternum closely foveolato-punctate, 

 slightly hairy, and produced into a very long, aculeate process ; 

 claws of anterior and intermediate tarsi with a tootli underneath. 



Length 17|-19i- mm. ; width 8^-9 miB. 



Hab. Transvaal (Eustenburg, Lydenburg), Natal (Durban), also 

 German East Africa and Zanzibar. 



The examples from Durban, Natal, have red femora. The colour 

 of this handsome insect is very variable. Herr F. Ohaus (Stett. Ent. 

 Zeit., 1898, p. 3), admits even of varieties which he names respec- 

 tively, nigrocyanea for examples from Loangwa River (Barotse- 

 land^, rufipennis from Mashonaland, and opaUna from UsamJDara. 

 He retains the variety cyanca, Blanch., for examples from Dar es 

 Salam. But some examples from there and also from Zanzibar, 

 which I saw, or I own, are nmch greener than those from the 

 Transvaal or Natal. 



Ph^nomeris magnifica, Hope, 



Trans. Zoolog. Soc, 1825, p. 98, pi. xiii., fig. 6. 

 ? P. rufipennis, Brancs. Jahr. Ver. Trencs., xix., 1897, p. 117. 



Similar in shape to P. hcsckei, and very much rarer in South Africa 

 than this species, but differing in the following characters : head and 

 clypeus golden bronze, much more roughly scabrose, the former is 

 much less rounded in the anterior part, and the anterior margin is 

 more reflexed ; the punctures cover the whole of the prothorax, but 

 are more scattered and finer in the discoidal part, instead of being 

 restricted to a narrow longitudinal space along the outer margin ; 

 the scutellum is plainly punctulate, and is only very slightly emarginate 

 laterally near the base, w4iereas in P. besckei the sinuation there is 

 conspicuous ; on the elytra the sharp, tectiform costaa are deeply and 

 somewhat closely punctured ; in the examples that I have seen the 

 elytra are hyacinthine pink, and the pygidium also, but the suture 

 and the sides of the pygidium are either more violaceous or iridescent 

 pale blue, and the punctures on the sides of the latter are much 

 more scattered and less numerous ; the apical abdominal segments 

 have the same hue as the elytra. The shape of the genital armature 

 differs very little from that of P. besckei. 



Length 18 mm. ; width 8 mm. 



Hope's description, as amended by Burmeister, applies very well 

 to this species, the metallic colour of the upper side being, however, 

 less glowing than in the type. 



