OF TROPICAL AFRICA. 217 



Pycnocerus, Hope MSS. 



Pachylocerus, Hope, Col. Man. iii. p. 186 '. 



Odontopus, pars. Silbermann ; Laporte. 



Iphicerus, Dej. Cat. 



Type of the genus, P. Westermanni, Hope, I. c. 



Tab. XV. Fig. 2. 



This group is at once distinguished from the preceding by having the club of the 

 antennae formed of three joints and by its metallic colour, and from the following by its 

 elongated narrow form and punctate-striated elytra. In the typical species the front 

 of the clypeus is bisinuated ; the sides of the head strongly elevated in front of the 

 eyes, having a curved transverse impression between the elevated parts ; along the inside 

 of each eye also extends a straight impressed hne, and the raised part between the eyes 

 terminates in a semicircular depression : the antennae are terminated by a three-jointed 

 club, the 9th and 10th joints being glabrous, short, broad, each extending over the base 

 of the next ; the 1 1th joint is larger than the others and pubescent ; the labrum is trans- 

 verse and entire ; the mandibles are not furnished with any strong teeth ; the maxilte have 

 the inner lobe terminated in a horny point ; the maxillary palpi are not securiform, the 

 last joint being but slightly broader than the preceding ; the prothorax has the margin 

 entire, being broadest behind, but with all the angles rounded oif ; it has two impressed 

 punctures in front of the middle; the elytra are nearly parallel and punctate- striated. 

 The anterior femora are thicker than the four posterior ; all have the under edge shghtly 

 serrated, and the anterior have a short spine near the tip within ; the four anterior tibiae 

 are curved, with an angular projection before the middle ; the tips are externally chan- 

 neled for the reception of the tarsi, the basal joint of which is attenuated at the base ; 

 the hind tibiae are nearly straight. 



The length of the body in the typical specimen in Mr. Hope's collection is 15^ lines 

 long, and the elytra are nearly 5 lines broad ; its colour is of a chalybeous blue, the 

 thorax more uniformly black, and the elytra more brassy, especially at the sides, which 

 are coppery. It inhabits Sierra Leone. 



Mr. Hope possesses two other specimens from the same locaUty, which he regards 

 as varieties. In one, which is 13| lines long, the head, antenna and legs are chalybeous 

 black ; the pronotum rufo-piceous, with two punctures on the disc ; the elytra are ferru- 

 gmous brown, with nine punctured striae on each, the punctures being distinct and the 

 space between the striaj smooth and regular ; the legs rather more slender ; the ungues 

 longer and acute, and the setae on the underside longer ; the body beneath is rufo-piceous 

 and submetallic. 



' This name had been previously employed by Mr. Hope for a singular genus of Longicorn Coleoptera, in the 

 First Part of the Transactions of the Entomological Society, p. 19. 



