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



Gen. FIGULUS, McLeay, 

 Hor. Entomol., i., 1819, p. 110. 

 This genus is very closely allied to Nigidius ; the body is narrower 

 and more depressed ; the mandibles are shorter, simple at apex, 

 without any vertical tooth at their base ; the head is shorter and 

 more transverse ; the elytra have no striae in the centre, and are 

 sometimes without any; the legs are as in Nigidius. 



The distribution of the species is also very much like that of the 

 genus Nigidius. 



FlGULUS AXTHRACINUS, Klug, 



Ins. Madag., 1833, p. 173. 



Shiny black, glabrous ; head deeply excavated with the super- 

 ciliary ridges very highly raised and sharp, and the genae bisecting 

 nearly the whole of the eyes, the surface of the head is covered with 

 variolose punctures somewhat closely set, but more so on the anterior 

 part than in the centre, on the vertex is an impunctate transverse 

 band ; prothorax parallel, plane on the dorsal part with the anterior 

 vertical, and having in the centre a weakly developed tubercle; in the 

 middle is a deep groove reaching neither apex nor base, and filled 

 w li somewhat shallow variolose punctures, the surface is smooth, 

 but on the sides are to be seen some aciculate punctures spread from 

 near the apex to about the median part of the length ; scutellum 

 impunctate ; elytra almost as broad at the base as the prothorax, 

 parallel to a very short distance of the apex where they are rounded, 

 moderately plane, deeply punctate striate, the juxta-sutural stria 

 extends from base to apex, and is divided by a broad, smooth 

 interval from the other three dorsal striae which only reach the 

 rounding of the posterior part, under the fourth stria is a series of 

 shallow punctures not much shorter than the stria itself, and the 

 outer margin is deeply punctured all round ; abdomen nearly smooth, 

 sides of pectus deeply variolate punctate ; anterior tibiae sharply 6- 

 dentate outwardly. 



Length 12-13i mm. ; width 3f-4 mm. 



Hab. Mozambique (Beira). 



I cannot find any difference between the Beira examples and those 

 from Madagascar or Nossi Be. F. anthradnus is not the same 

 species as F. sublccvis, which Kolbe records from Zanzibar Island. 



Family PASSALID.E. 



This family, which has been separated by some authors from the 

 Lucanidce, is really more closely allied to the Scarabceidce than the 



