1902.] Catalogue of the Coleoptcra of South Africa. 725 



Heterochelus armipbs, Bohem., 



Plate XLIL, fig. 30. 



Insect. Caffrar., ii., p. 154. 



Male : Head and pectus black, prothoi'ax aeneous black, or reddish 

 with a faint metallic tinge ; elytra reddish testaceous, and having 

 three distinct dorsal bands of yellowish or sub-flavescent scales, and 

 an indistinct one along the outer margin ; legs reddish ; pygidium 

 scaly and with a brown, velvety patch on each side of the base ; 

 clypeus sharply bi-dentate on each side at tip, and with two some- 

 what indistinct teeth in the middle ; head granulose, pubescent ; 

 prothorax clothed with dense sub-villose flavescent erect hairs which 

 are somewhat appressed along the basal margin ; scutellum clothed 

 with closely set elongate scales ; elytra distinctly attenuate laterally 

 towards the apex, costate, with the intervals filled on each side with 

 a band of elongated flavescent scales turning sometimes to grey, the 

 juxta-sutural band is broader than the other two, and the rounded 

 costae are briefly but densely setulose, the scales on the pygidium 

 are deep yellow and very minute, and the two basal velvety patches 

 are longitudinal and reach to half the length, the propygidium has a 

 broad border of scales similar to those of the pygidium ; the hind 

 femora are large and have inwardly at the base a sharp median 

 spine, this being really the apex of the trochanter which is quite fused 

 with the femur, and an inner, strong, sub-hamate one set near the 

 knee which is only slightly dentate on each side ; the hind tibiae are 

 somewhat long, moderately scooped inwardly, and have a transverse 

 graduated process on the upper edge, near the knee, and on the lower 

 edge a strong triangular tooth situated a little lower down, the 

 mucronate apical process is arcuate and sharp, the lower edge 

 between the triangular tooth and the apical mucro is pluri-serrate, 

 the upper edge is also denticulate in the posterior part and ends in a 

 truncate projecting process, there is no apical spur, and the incised 

 inner claw of the hind legs is half the length of the outer which is 

 simple. In the small examples the truncate transverse process on 

 the upper margin of the hind tibiae is not strongly developed. 



Female : The female has the head, thorax, and under side black ; 

 the teeth of the clypeus are similar ; the elytra have also the scaly 

 bands, and the pygidium has only a very faint trace of the two black 

 patches, but is as scaly as in the male. 



Length 6-8 mm. ; width 3^-4^ mm. 



Hab. Natal (Durban, Estcourt) ; Transvaal (Johannesbm-g). 



In the examples from Johannesburg, which are smaller than those 



