1902.] Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 625 



The number of genera and species of Hopliin^ occurring in South 

 Africa is the most striking feature of the Coleopterous Fauna of this 

 part of the world. 



In the districts of the Cape Colony where the winter rains prevail 

 (May-Septembei') it may almost be said that on a bright day in the 

 spring (August-October) no flower is without a tenant. Although 

 less abundant where the summer rains (November-March) occur, 

 they are, however, numerous and varied. 



The insects included in the Tribe Pachycnemini are characterised 

 by very long and slender maxillae, often without inner teeth, and 

 having a bi-lobate membranaceous ligula. The shape of these mouth- 

 parts implies a suctorial diet. Few insects are better adapted for fer- 

 tilisation than the species of Anisonyx, Peritricliia, Lcpitrix. Covered 

 with dense, long hairs, and provided with a very narrow and elongate 

 clj^eus, they penetrate deep into the corolla of the flowers and emerge 

 ■covered with pollen. The species of Paclnjcncma which, like those 

 of the genera above-mentioned, have no toothed maxillae and possess 

 a sharply acuminate clypeus, are heavier insects, in manj^ cases 

 scantily clothed with hairs ; they also are, however, important agents 

 of fertilisation. Ericsthis, Stoiocneina, and Korisaba have strongly 

 dentate maxillas and a shorter and broader ligula ; they are no 

 longer suctorial insects only, and they, like the Heterochclidcs with 

 which they are connected by the shape of the buccal organs, live at 

 the expense of the corolla and pistils. 



The species of the group Heteroclielidcs are much less hairy, 

 the clypeus is not acuminate, the ligula is fused with the mentum 

 as in all the other genera of the Melolonthin^, the maxillae are 

 •dentate, sometimes feebly, sometimes strongly ; in one instance 

 only [Nanniscus) are they simple. They are perhaps more 

 numerous than the Pachycnemini in kind, and certainly so 

 in species and genera. The female retains somewhat the 

 general appearance of the Melolonthin^, but the male has a 

 facies of his own, owing to the greatly compressed abdomen ; 

 the pygidium is strongly declivous in a forward direction, and the 

 hind legs are absurdly large. These features are not, however, 

 restricted to this group, they are also common to the species of the 

 genus Monochelns, &c., of the group Scclopky sides. Among the 

 Pachycnemini they have reached their highest point in the genera 

 Pachycnema and Hoplocnemis in which the hind tibiae especially are 

 ■enormously developed, and the joints of the hind tarsi are sometimes 

 partially, or even entirely fused. This great development of the hind 

 legs is not intended for securing a better hold of the female. There 

 is nothing more ridiculous than to see half a dozen males with their 



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