322 Transactions South African Philosophical Society, [vol. xiii. 



Tribe CETONINI. 



As I have already mentioned in the Key to the rive divisions of the 

 Sub-Family, the two characteristic features of the genera and species 

 included in this Tribe consist : (a) in the forcing forward of the meso- 

 thoracic epimera in such a manner that they have become inserted 

 between the prothorax and the elytra. (There is no exception to this 

 rule, and any insect, however much Cetonidous its appearance, must 

 be removed from the Tribe if that character is wanting : this 

 bulging, however, is a matter of degree, and in the Ischnostomii 

 these epimera are not very conspicuous in the male, but they are 

 more marked in the female.) (b) The scutellum is long, sharply or 

 very sharply acuminate at tip, seldom slightly obtuse, even in such 

 species where the base of the prothorax impinges on or covers entirely 

 that part. The elytra are more or less attenuated behind, very 

 seldom parallel (some species of Cremastochilides), never gibbose 

 convex ; they are deeply sinuated laterally, at some distance from the 

 base, and this sinuation exposes to the view the external edge of 

 the hind coxae which does not lie plane with the metasternum, and 

 the apical angle of which projects often strongly, and is angular or 

 even spinose ; the propygidium is covered by the elytra in the 

 Cetonides, but not completely in the Cremastochilides. The pygidium 

 is vertical in both sexes in the first-named Sub-Tribe, often gibbose in 

 the second. The last abdominal spiracle is plane in the Cetonides t 

 but in the Cremastochilides , with the exception of Macroma and 

 Hoplostomus it is tubular, aculeate or even spinose, but this 

 character is also very conspicuous in two species of Maitsolcojisis, of 

 the Leucocelites, and in their case this would seem to point to a 

 myrmecobious or termitobious mode of life, because the great majority 

 of the Cremastochilides lead such a life. The legs are compressed 

 laterally, and either massive, robust, or slender ; owing to their 

 compression the slanting ridge " en chevron " found on the upper 

 outer side of the intermediate anil posterior tibia? of many 

 Melolonthini has disappeared, and is reduced to a more or less sharp 

 or distinct tooth in the great majority of species ; occasionally it is 

 almost obliterated ; in the genera Trichostetha and Odontorrhina the 

 intermediate tibia* have two superposed teeth ; this occurs also in 

 Diplognatha gagates, but its variety silicea, its local representative 

 here, has only one; in the genus PorptyronotQ the hind tibiae are 

 Berrulate on the upper ridge in addition to the normal tooth, which 

 is, however, occasionally absent. The hind tibiae are always ending 

 at the outer apical end in three spinose processes, the outer of which 



