Mr. G. J. Arrow on Melolontliine Coleoptera. 63 



? . Tlie protliorax is witliout a median sulcus. It is not 

 finely ruj;03e, but stron,<;lj [)unctured, and clothed with 

 pn-yisii hair, longer but li!33 dense ihan that of the male. 

 Tliere are no scaU-s. The elytra are more thinly clothed with 

 decumbent setie ot an almost uniform tawny colour. 



Length 4'5 mm. 



IJab. Burchell's eight specimens, all of wliich are accounted 

 for, were captured in flowers, five of them at Uitenhage 

 (Nov. 28 and Dee. 1, 1813), and two between Kra Ka Kamnia 

 and Van Stade's River (Feb. 7, 1814), near (S.VV. of) 

 Uitenhage. Two from each locality are in tiie British 

 Museum, but there is no means of associating these specimens 

 with their })recise data. 



Types ( (S and ? ) in Britisli Museum. 



The desciiptiou is based upon nos. 1303 and 1305 in the 

 British Museum. The specimen numbered 1308 is rather 

 smaller and shorter, and may possibly jMOve to l)e distinct ; 

 but it is most likely only an aberrant individual of the same 

 form. 



From the description, this species must be very nearly 

 related to I), hupocrila, Pdringuey, v^rhich has on each 

 elytron two discoidal bands of pale scales coalescing at the 

 middle, whereas only one is present in our form. In the 

 female no pattern is traceable. A male and female of the 

 species were compared by Mr. Guy Marshall and Mr. Peiiii- 

 guey with the Peiinguey type at Cape Town and tiie ? (293) 

 named lleteroclielus lougipes, Buiin., the ^ (294) Uicrano- 

 ciietiivs squainusus, Burm. Both, however, show the form of 

 front tihia distinctive of JHc)'anoc7i>"inus, while D. squavwsus 

 is chaiacterized by a peculiar formation of the middle claws 

 of the (5" which is absent here. D. hurchefli is one of the 

 very numerous species of this group of which the sexes are 

 quite dissimilar, so that, in the absence of sufficient evidence, 

 they are frequently associated wrongly. The question has 

 been settled for us in the present instance by Burchell. 

 Four males and four females were taken by him, and of these 

 one of each given to the British Museum were placed on the 

 same pin, showing his conclusion that they belonged to a 

 single species. It will be seen in the above description that, 

 in addition to a difference of shape, the elytra of the male are 

 decorated with orange scales, with a paler sutural patch and 

 longitudinal stripe upon each, whde the female is uniformly 

 clothed with giey hair. Hence it is not surprising that, in 

 the absence of direct evidence, they should have been assigned 

 to different species, and even different genera. 



