(139) 



Notices of new or little known Cetoniidae ; by Oliver E. 

 Janson, F.E.S. No. 10. 



melinesthes. 



Kraatz, Ent. Monatsbl. 12, p. 24 (1880). 



The presence of a long dense fringe on the inner side of the 

 fonr posterior tibiae of the male is given by Kraatz as one of 

 the distinctions between this genus and Genyodonta, but it is not 

 a character that can be relied upon, as I find these hairs are 

 vary liable to be more or less worn oif in old specimens, more- 

 over, the species which I have named calvipes has not any 

 indication whatever of hairs. Nor are the curved mesosternal 

 process, untoothed male and bi-dentate* female tibiae generic 

 characters, as exilis has a short straight mesosternal process, 

 hamiila has a distinct tooth near the apex of the anterior til)iac 

 in the male, and the females of flavvpennis, hamula and elongata 

 have only one lateral tooth on the anterior tibiae, nmbonata alone, 

 so far as I am aware, having them bi-dentate. 



J\[. wnhonata, G. P. 



This common species varies considerably in size and coloration, 

 the variety Avith the black thoracic patch divided has been named 

 vitticollis by Kraatz, and two males in my own collection from 

 Natal of a much more aberrant variety, for which I proj^ose the 

 name of atricollis, differ in having the head, thorax and legs 

 entirely black, thus resembling the female of flavipennis m 

 general aspect. 



M. elongata, Bates. 



This species has now been received in considerable numbers, 

 the black thoracic patch is liable to much variation as in 



* Dr. Kraatz has fallen into a common but obvious error, which I 

 used frequently to commit myself, in describing the anterior tibiae of 

 the male, as '• i>irn>i/'.s- " and those of the female as " tri/Icntaidc" 

 whereas the female has only two teeth, which are not present iu the 

 male, the third tooth being merely the produced apex of the tibia, 

 which is equally pronounced in the two sexes. 



