OF TROPICAL AFRICA. 219 



lineisque tribus tenuibus longitudinalibus lavibus, femoribus simplicibus, tibiis anticis 

 apicem versus intus dente instructis, tibiis posticis curvatis, intus sinuatis. 



Long. Corp. lin. 12^. 



Hab. Senegallia ? In mus. nostr. 



The head and prothorax are of a chalybeous black colour ; the antennae have the four 

 terminal joints manifestly larger than the preceding and pubescent, whilst the others 

 are shining ; the clypeus is broad and elevated, and separated from the vertex by a 

 nearly straight line ; the eyes are wide apart ; the square space between them has three 

 slightly impressed longitudinal channels ; this part is separated from the hind part of 

 the head by a transverse impression ; the prothorax has the sides rounded and crenu- 

 lated ; the disc has a slight transverse impression near the front margin, and with a lens 

 is seen, as well as the head, to be finely punctured. The elytra are dark green with a 

 slight coppery tinge ; they are rather strongly and irregularly punctured, some of the 

 punctures being arranged so as to leave four irregular impunctate striae on each elytron ; 

 the legs are black ; the femora are not dentate beneath near the tip, but the anterior and 

 posterior pairs are sinuated in that part. The anterior tibiae have an angulated tubercle 

 near the tip within, and the hind tibiae are curved and sinuated before and beyond the 

 middle on the inside. 



My specimen of this insect is labelled Brazil, but it so completely agrees in its 

 generic characters with the preceding, that there must have been some error. 



Species 3. — The Tenebrio cyaneus of Fabricius (Ent. Syst. iv. 439), from Senegal, evi- 

 dently belongs to the genus Odontopus ; indeed Silbermann (and Chevrolat) and Laporte 

 mention it as the third species, whilst Dejean gives it under the name of Pezodontus 

 speciosus, or the Lagria speciosa of his former catalogue, giving the name of cyaneus as of 

 Chevrolat, and as a synonym of his own name. Fabricius however describes it as having 

 the elytra punctato-striate, and the " femora mutica ;" the elytra are however covered 

 with punctures, some of which alone, especially on the back, are disposed in striae, and 

 in all the specimens I have seen, the femora have two minute teeth near the tip beneath. 

 Silbermann, however, describes them as only " munies d'une dent aigue au sommet 

 interieur." The tibiae in this species are compressed and all are slightly incurved, the 

 tip being narrower than the middle of the limb. The margin of the thorax is entire. 

 Mr. Hope possesses many specimens of a variety in which the elytra, instead of being 

 of a fine coppery purple, are of a brassy colour. Fabricius, in the ' Systema Eleuthe- 

 ratorum,' i. p. 157, refers his Helops metallicus to his previously described Tenebrio 

 cyaneus ; but he appears to have evidently had two distinct insects in view at difierent 

 times, the first from Senegal, in the collection of Paykull, and the second {metallicm) 

 from South America, in the collection of Lund. The elytra in the latter are described 

 as " obscuro-aeneis" instead of " cupreis," as they are in the former. 



Mr. Hope (Col. Man. iii. 74) gives the Helops metallicus as from Senegal, and as 



