1G4 J\lr. G. C. Champion on (he 



4. Melyris rufomarginata, sp. n. 



Melyris rufomarginata, Dej. Cat., 3rd edit. p. 125 (1830) l . 



Moderately elongate, depressed, opaque ; piceous or nigro- 

 piceous, the outer margins of the elytra testaceous or rufo- 

 testaceous, the pallid coloration sometimes extending inward 

 over the humeral callosities and forward for a short distance 

 along the suture at the apex ; somewhat thickly clothed with 

 short, bristly, fuscous hairs, which form a conspicuous ciliate 

 margin along the sides of the body, the abdomen also with 

 a few lon-2,- hairs at the tip ; the head and prothorax closely 

 pimctulate and reticulate. Head small, short; antennae short, 

 the outer joints moderately widened. Prothorax strongly 

 transverse, arcuately narrowed anteriorly, canaliculate, the 

 lateral carina sharp and almost straight, reaching the base 

 at some distance from the hind angles, the margins finely 

 crenulate. Elytra moderately long, wider than the pro- 

 thorax ; feebly tricostate, the interspaces rather finely tri- 

 or quadri-sei'iate-punctate, the lateral and apical margins 

 naruowly explanate, the inferior margin conspicuously crenu- 

 late. Legs short, rather slender ; tarsal claws comparatively 

 short, toothed near the base. 



$ . Ventral segment 5 broadly, feebly arcuate-emarginate, 

 6 almost smooth, notched at the tip. 



$ . Ventral segment 6 deeply sulcate down the middle. 

 Length 3J-5, breadth l±-2£ mm. ( <$ ? .) 

 Hab. S. Africa (Mus. Brit., Dr. Andrciv Smith) , Grahams- 

 town, Cape of Good Hope l (ex coll. Fry), Enon, Algoa Bay 

 (J. S. Duncan, 1835, in Mus. O.von.). 



Nine specimens, including one <£ • Apparently tin- 

 described, though examples of it had been received by the 

 British Museum in 1844 and 1848. A small, depressed, 

 opaque, nigro-piceous, hirsute insect, with pallid margins to 

 the elytra, closely related to the unicolorous M. nigra, P., 

 which has coarsely triseriate-punctate elytral interspaces and 

 sharper costse. M. limbata, Peringuey (1885), from Knysna, 

 Cape Colony, is a shining, metallic, convex form not repre- 

 sented in the collections before me. 



5. Melyris pubescens. 



': Melyris pubescens, Oliv. Ent. ii. 21, p. 5, t. 1. figs. 5 a, 5 b. 



Moderately elongate, green or bluish-green, the tarsi and 

 antenna; infuscate or black; dull above, more shining beneath, 



