1006 COLEOPTEKA 



■ Head smooth behind, interocular impressions short. Thorax 

 transverse ; anterior angles obtusely prominent, so that the apex 

 seems as if widely emarginated ; widest at the middle ; rounded 

 towards the front, gradually narrowed behind ; basal angles rectan- 

 gular but not at all protuberant ; median sulcus fine and abbreviated ; 

 basal fossae rather narrow, situated midway between the middle and 

 sides, its surface free from distinct punctuation, slightly uneven, 

 with some feeble transverse wrinkles. Elytra broader than thorax ; 

 ovate-oblong, sinuated posteriorly, margins reliexed ; very finely 

 punctate-striate ; interstices broad ; third unipunctate, eighth carinate 

 behind. 



The body is rather fiatter than usual. The thorax is like that 

 of No. 1456, its nearest ally, but in it the front angles are quite 

 different, and the basal organs are a little projecting. 



Length, 2f ; breadth, 1^ lines. 



Mount Cook, near the Hermitage. Mr. H. Suter. 



Sympiestus. 



Nov. (jen. 

 (Sharp; Trans. Ron. Dub. Soc, Nov., 1886, p. 372.) 



Labruvi very short, deeply emargiuate, so that its angles are 

 prominent. Mandibles rather elongate, little curved, with external 

 seta. Palpi with the terminal joint a little incrassate, oval and 

 acuminate, that of the maxillary palpi twice or three times as long 

 as the penultimate joint, which is much abbreviated ; excision of the 

 mentiim shallow, not toothed. Antennce with the three basal joints 

 glabrous, the third joint being, however, feebly pubescent above. 

 Head with two orbital setae. Thorax margined laterally, with two 

 lateral setae, normally placed ; closely applied to the base of the 

 elytra. Epip)leura oblique, grooved near the apex. Metasternum 

 very small. Male anterior tarsi with three joints feebly dilated and 

 furnished beneath with squamte. 



The insect for which this genus is established has quite the ap- 

 pearance of a small Ptcrostichns, but will be very readily identified 

 by the peculiar palpi and labrum. It should, I think, be placed 

 near Cijclothoran' and TarastetJius. The former genus is at present 

 placed by systematists in the Anchomenini, but it must be removed 

 from thence, as the epipleurae are traversed near the apex by a 

 slender deep groove, as in the present genus. Tropopterus should be 

 removed from the New Zealand list, and its species placed in Tara- 

 stethus. These obscure New Zealand genera are of rather difficult 

 classification, and will, perhaps, ultimately form a distinct tribe 

 near the Pterostichini and TrecJiini. 



1804. S. Syntheticus, n.s. (Sliarp ; Trans. Boy. Dub. Soc, 

 Nov., 1886, p. 373.) Subparallelus, niger, antennis rufis, articulo 

 basali pedibusque piceis ; prothorace subquadrato, basi utrinque 

 fovea elongata sulciforme ; elytris parum profunde striatis, striis 

 conspicue punctatis. 



Long., 6A-mm. 



