African and Asiatic Species 0/* Melyris. i89 



Dr. Neave and the late II. C. Dollman in N. Rhodesia, 

 all Females, are provisionally referred to M. incompleta, Faii- 

 maire, who does not mention the deep basal impressions of 

 the prothorax, &c. Separable from M. rufiventris (type 

 from the Limpopo), ? , as here identified, by the broad, 

 transversely snbcampannlate prothorax, the base of which is 

 deeply foveate on each side within the very prominent 

 posterior portion of the lateral carina, the latter sinuate and 

 sometimes incomplete, and the black tarsi. It is a curious 

 fact that no male has been received of this conspicuous 

 Melyris, though the insect has been met with on many 

 occasions and by various collectors. The red abdomen and 

 the less divergent basal portion of the prothoracic carina 

 separate M. incompleta from M. nobilis, Gerst., the £ of 

 which is also unknown to me. 



36. Melyris albicoma. 

 Zygia albicoma, Pic, Ann. Mus. Genova, xxxix. p. 509 (1899). 



Hub. E. Africa, Brava in Somaliland (Mus. Genoa). 



The unique type of this insect, captured by Bottego 

 in Oct. 1895, is a ?. It is of about the same size as 

 M. parvula, Gerst., and separable therefrom by its dull, 

 sericeous, much smoother, bluish-green upper surface, which 

 is clothed with short, adpressed, whitish pubescence (includ- 

 ing a line of hairs extending down each of the elytral eostre) ; 

 the head is short and narrow; the prothorax is convex, with 

 the median groove very shallow and the lateral carina 

 sinuate; the elytral interspaces have about four rows of 

 rather fine punctures ; and the antennal joints 1-6, abdomen 

 (except segments 1, 2, and 6), and legs (the black fifth 

 tarsal joint excepted) are rufo-testaceous. The S. African 

 M. pubescens, Oliv., has a somewhat similar vestiture. 



37. Melyris nobilis. 



Melyris nobilis, Gerst. Arch. f. Naturg. xxxvii. p. 56 (1871) 1 , and in 

 Van der Decken's Reisen, iii. p. 156, t. 8. fig. 7 (1873) - ; Kolbe, 

 Deutsch Ost-Afrika, iv. p. 222 (1898) 3 . 



Zygia nobilis, var. viridiventris, Pic, llev. Zool, Afric. iii. p. 158 

 (1913) 4 . 



Hab. E. and Central Africa, Lake Jipe 123 (sec. Ger- 

 staecker), Masailand (Mus. Brit.: ?) ; Congo Region — 

 Sankisia 4 , Kabinda, Luanza, Kabambare, Kakauwe, Ki- 

 sengwa, and Luapula-Kasenga (Mus. Congo Beige : ? ) ; S. 

 Somaliland \ 



Fourteen examples of this species are before me, all $ ? — 

 six from Masailand, presented to the British Museum in 



Ann. da Mag. N. Hist. Ser. ( .». Vol. iv. If) 



