378 APPENDIX. 



This is a second species with the pecuh'ar pointed clypeus of 

 P. nasuta, to which it is very closely related. It differs especially 

 iu having the customary pair of tufts of white hairs at the base of 

 the pygidium, which are absent in P. nasuta. The hairs are long, 

 outstanding, and not closely set, and the clothing of the lower 

 surface of the body differs from that of P. nasuta in being longer, 

 and erect instead of decumbent. The colour is also different 

 from that of the allied species. Of eight specimens the two 

 females are deep metallic green, with a slight rosy tinge, while 

 the males have the head, pronotum, pygidium and lower surface 

 coppery-red, three of them with the elytra of the same colour and 

 the other three having them testaceous, witli a metallic suffusion 

 and marked with dark patches as described. Structurally the 

 two species are almost alike, but a strongly marked difference 

 exists in the mesosternal process, which is very much shorter in 

 the new species. 



Taken with the eight specimens above described, at the sam.e 

 time and place, are three females identical in form and colour 

 with the two females of P. lanarensis, but really belonging to 

 P. nasuta. The mesosternal process is long, the pubescence of 

 the lower surface short and close. These specimens, however, 

 show some degree of approach to P. lanarensis, the pubescence not 

 being quite decumbent and the pygidial tufts being represented 

 by two or three minute inconspicuous hairs on each side. The 

 examination of more numerous specimens of these forms is 

 necessary to obtain light on the very interesting problem suggested 

 by them. 



1 1 a. Mimela pusilla, sp. nov. 



Light chestnut-red above, with a shght metallic crimson lustre 

 upon the anterior part, and the metasternum, abdomen (except 

 the extremity), the inner side of the tibiae and the tarsi very dark 

 metallic green. The antennae are pale with a dark club. 



It is a small, rather shortly ovate and not very convex insect, 

 moderately smooth and shining, and thinly clothed beneath with 

 grey hair. The clypeus is rugosely punctured, nearly straight iu 

 front and not very short ; the eyes are prominent and not very 

 small, and the forehead and vertex are rather strongly but not 

 closely punctured. The pronotum is very finely and sparingly 

 punctured, a little more strongly at the sides ; the front angles 

 are acutely produced, the sides gently rounded, the hind angles 

 nearly right angles and the base finely margined. The scutellum 

 is very minutely punctured, and the elytra are rather strongly 

 punctured, with two well-marked pairs of dorsal lines and wide 

 irregularly-punctured intervals. The pygidium is strongly punc- 

 tured. The mesosternum is not produced. The front tibia is 

 bidentate, with the upper tooth feeble ; the hind femur is very 

 thick and the hind tibia stout. 



