African and Asiatic Species of Melyris. 169 



<$ . Ventral segment 5 with a transverse arcuate exca- 

 vation in the middle, and also deeply arcuate-emarginate at 

 apex, 6 short, almost smooth, subcarinate down the centre, 

 notched at tip; tegmen fringed with a few rather long 

 pallid hairs ; median lobe of aedeagus gradually narrowed, 

 blunt at apex. 



Length 5^-6|, breadth 2j-2£ mm. (<??.) 



Hab. S. Africa (Mus. Brit., Mus. Oxon.), Table Mountain, 

 Cape of Good Hope ( W. Bevins) . 



Thirty specimens, including thirteen sent by Mr. Bevins 

 to the British Museum in 1906. Recognizable amongst its 

 S. African allies by the elongate shape, the brilliant blue or 

 violaceous colour, the rather coarsely granulate, angulato- 

 reticulate sculpture of the prothorax, and the explanate 

 elytral margins. This insect may or may not be referable to 

 M. violacea, Sturm, from the Cape of Good Hope, given 

 as a synonym of M. lineata, F., in the ' Munich Catalogue * ;. 

 but the MS. name can quite well be used for it. 



11. Melyris leetula, sp. n. 



Moderately elongate, rather broad, somewhat depressed, 

 slightly shining above, brilliant beneath, somewhat thickly 

 clothed with adpressed yellowish pubescence ; brassy or 

 golden, with faint greenish or cupreous tinges in certain 

 lights, the antennae and tarsi black; the abdomen fringed 

 with long blackish hairs at the tip ; the head and prothorax 

 densely punctulate and reticulate. Head and antennae 

 short. Prothorax transverse, arcuately narrowed from near 

 the base, sulcate, the lateral carina almost straight, the- 

 margins slightly expanded and obsoletely crenulate. Elytra 

 at the base slightly broader than the prothorax, widened 

 posteriorly, distinctly explanate at the sides and apex ; 

 sharply tricostate, the interspaces alutaceous, coarsely, regu- 

 larly triseriate-punctate, the inferior margin crenulate. 



£ . Ventral segment 5 subtruncate at the apex, and 

 deeply transversely excavate in the middle ; 6 very deeply 

 arcuate-emarginate, appearing bilobed. 



Length 4-4|, breadth 2-2^- mm. 



Hab. S. Africa, Natal (Mus. Brit.). 



One pair, acquired in 1840, the $ labelled u Icetula, n. sp., 

 Natal." This insect looks like a brassy variety of M. capensis 

 (M. sulcicollis, Boh., varying in this way in colour), but 

 differs from that insect in the longer pubescence, and the 

 more deeply emarginate sixth ventral segment in $ f 

 M. Icetula in this respect approaching M. ciliativentris. 



