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



Length 10-12 mm. ; width 4-4f mm. 



Unit. Natal (Zululand) ; Southern Ehodesia (Salisbury) ; Ovam- 

 poland. 



Gen. TRICHOPLUS, Burm., 



Handb. d. Entom., hi., 1842, p. 660. 



Mentum plane, small, roundly dilated laterally, the ligular part 

 much narrowed at the palps cavities, last joints of labial palps short, 

 somewhat swollen, maxillary with the upper lobe long, not falciform, 

 somewhat bifid, lower lobe with a smaller tooth slightly bi- or trifid; 

 clypeus very convex at the base, head with a basal tubercle or ridge, 

 highly carinate longitudinally above the eyes which are very small 

 and depressed ; basal antennal joint large, club large, obovate ; 

 prothorax variable in shape, either as broad at base as at apex, or 

 cordate and strongly constricted at base ; scutellum long, sharply 

 acuminate ; elytra sub-parallel, either not sinuate laterally or with 

 a distinct sinus ; propygidium wide, slanting ; pygidium very wide, 

 vertical, or sloping forwards; mesosternum with a rounded carinate 

 process between the coxae, presternum with a long, vertical process 

 broadly compressed and truncate at the tip ; legs quite glabrous ; 

 tarsi tri-jointed, the joints fused, the claws very small ; anterior 

 tibiae dentate at apex only ; intermediate and posterior compressed, 

 and without spine on the upper side. 



Two of the seven species included in this genus are known now to 

 be myrmecobious, and they most probably have all the same habits. 

 Unlike some of the myrmecobious species of this Tribe they have 

 not been met with as yet outside the South African area. They 

 have a very peculiar, not very homogeneous facies. 



Key to llif Sjtrcics. 



A 1 . Elytra with a single dorsal costa on each side and Btrigillate. 



B 3 . Prothorax plane, not narrowed or constricted behind. 



Elytra with the strides obliterated on the sides of the 

 suture lavis. 



B 2 . Prothorax cordate, strongly constricted behind. 



Discoidal part deeply excavated, sides nut incised. 



Elytra plainly striate diagonally en each side of the dorsal 

 costa. 



Prothoracic cavity roundly plicate ; pygidium with a trans- 



se horizontal lamina emarginate in the centre schaumi. 



