British Species of Homalota. 145 



41. Homalota ■picipes. 



Nigra, antice alutacea, antennis elytrisque nigro-piceis, 

 pedibus fusco-testaceis ; antennis sat crassis, apicem ver- 

 sus vix in crassatis; thorace transversim subquadrato, basin 

 versus baud angustato, postice foveolato; elytris hoc ter- 

 tia parte longioribus ; abdoraine basi parce punctato, apice 

 fere levigate. Long. 1| lin. 



Mas; antennis articulo 3° incrassato, abdomine seg- 

 mento 7° dorsali, apice medio, late, fere triangulariter, 

 emarginato, margine posteriore subtiliter incrassato, ven- 

 trali, paulo producto, apice rotundato. 



Fern.; abdomine segmento 7° dorsali, apice medio tri- 

 angulariter exciso, ventrali, apice obtuse acuminato. 



H.picipes, Th. Ofv. Vet. Ac. Forh. 1856, p. 99; Athe- 

 ta picvpes, Sk. Col. iii. 81. H.fiisco-femorata, Wat. Cat. 



Flat, but not very depressed, shorter, broader, and 

 comparatively rather more robust, than H. fungivora. 

 The antenna3 are short and stout, about the length of the 

 head and thorax, scarcely thickened towards the apex; 

 pitchy-black, obscurely paler at the base ; first joint stout, 

 second and third short, of about equal length, fourth a 

 little more slender than the fifth, its length about equal 

 to its breadth, five to ten differing but little in length and 

 breadth, each one distinctly transverse; eleventh joint 

 nearly as long as the two preceding. Head rather broad 

 and short, narrower than the thorax, dullish; flat above, 

 broadly impressed in the male, very obscurely in the 

 female. Thorax but little narrower than the elytra^ fully 

 one-third broader than long, not narrowed 'behind, with 

 an impression or short channel in the middle in front of 

 the base, in the male with a broad impression, its sculp- 

 ture alutaceous, fine and pretty dense. The elytra are 

 quadrate, about a fourth longer than the thorax, aluta- 

 ceous, the sculpture pretty dense and distinct. The ab- 

 domen is black and shining, sometimes brownish at the 

 apex ; the basal segments sparingly punctured, the fifth 

 and sixth almost impunctate. The legs are pitchy-tes- 

 taceous. 



In the male, the third joint of the antennge is thickened, 

 the head and thorax are distinctly impressed ; the upper 

 plate of the seventh abdominal segment has its posterior 

 margin a little thickened, and emarginate in the middle. 



