1907.] Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 405 



black, with exception of the two last apical abdominal segments 

 which are red like the anterior part of the clypeus, the lateral margin 

 of the thorax, the pygidium, and the legs ; elytra flavous with the 

 somewhat broad suture, the marginal fold and a humeral patch 

 fuscous or black ; antennae reddish ; clypeus slightly broader than 

 long, somewhat strangulate at base, the anterior border is plainly 

 reflexed, broadly emarginate in the centre, faintly bi-impressed 

 longitudinally, and closely punctulate, vertex clothed in both sexes 

 with a dense flavescent pubescence ; this pubescence is often partly 

 or wholly obliterated ; prothorax glabrous, shiny, closely punctulate 

 especially on the sides ; scutellum impunctate ; elytra shiny, very 

 weakly punctulate, and having on each side two thin, somewhat 

 faint costules ; pygidium finely transversely plicate ; abdominal 

 segments with scattered punctures ; sternum coarsely scabrose 

 punctate, scarcely hairy except on the fore thighs, mesosternum 

 grooved longitudinally in the centre, the process long, triangular 

 with the apical part curving slightly upwards and hairy in the inner 

 face, this process, including the basal part, is glabrous ; inner part 

 of all tibiae fringed with flavescent hairs which are longer in the 

 intermediate and posterior legs ; anterior tibiae uni-dentate in the 3 , 

 tri-dentate in the ? . 



This species is variable in shape, as well as in the colouring of the 

 prothorax. In tbe male the elytra are either plainly more attenuate 

 laterally behind than in the female or only slightly less so. In the 

 type form, the disk of the prothorax is black or darkly infuscate 

 with a somewhat narrow red margin ; this is, however, the exception, 

 the most common form being that in which the discoidal black patch 

 is divided into two bands (var. vitticollis, Kr.) ; but occasionally the 

 whole thorax is black (var. atricollis, Jans.). 



Length 15-19 mm. ; width 8^-10 mm. 



Hab. Cape Colony (Albany, Butterworth, East London) ; Natal 

 (Hilton Eoad, Upper Tongaat, Maritzburg, Eshowe) ; Transvaal 

 (Pretoria, Potchefstroom, Lydenburg, Pietersburg). 



Feeds on thistles and Composites. 



Melinesthes exilis, Jans., 



Cistul. Entomol., vol. hi., 1885, p. 141. 



? M. simillima, Kr., Entom. Monastsb., ii., 1880, p. 25. 



The species, of which the type, a $ , was kindly communicated to 



me by Mr. 0. E. Janson, is so closely allied to the preceding species 



that it is with the greatest diffidence that I accept it as being 



distinct. The shape of the elytra of the male varies as it does in 



