On Beetles of the Melolonthid Genus Rhopaea. 31 'J 



fortiter et regulariter arcuatis, angulis auticis paulo acutis, 

 posticis obsoletis ; scutello sat magno, brevi, haud acute angulato ; 

 elytris valde convexis, humeris prominentibus ; abdomine toto 

 tecto. 

 Long. 4*5 mm. ; lat. 2-5 mm. 



Hah. Sarawak : Mt. Merinjak (600-1500 ft., May) ; 

 Lundu (January). 



Male specimens of this very interesting insect were found 

 by Mr. Gr. C. Bryant upon foliage in the jungle on various 

 occasions in 1914, but no females were seen. 



It is a small creature of rather short compact form, with a 

 shining surface, varying in colour from light chestnut to 

 nearly black, and sparsely studded everywhere with long 

 bristling hairs arising from large pits. The legs are stout 

 and the antennae end in a massive club (distinctive, of course, 

 of the male), which constitutes the most striking feature of 

 the insect. Each antenna consists of nine joints, the first not 

 long, the second globular, the third long and slender, the 

 fourth and fifth each about half the length of the third, the 

 sixth very short, and the last three very large, longer than 

 the entire foot-stalk and shaped like the section of a pear, 

 narrow at the base and at the widest part nearly half as wide 

 as long. The front tibia bears three very strong and sharp 

 external teeth, the middle and hind tibiae are very spinose 

 externally and at their extremities, where they are rather 

 dilated, and bear long terminal spurs. The claws are strongly 

 curved, but not very long, simple and symmetrical, except 

 the inner front one, which is deeply cleft. 



XXXIX. — Upon the Beetles of the Melolonthid Genus Rhopaea 

 found in the Fiji Islands. By Gilbert J. Arrow. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



In revising the genus Rhopaa, in the Trans. Roy. Soc. of 

 S. Australia, vol. xxxv. (1911), Blackburn mentions that it 

 appears to be, on the whole, a South Australian genus. In 

 addition to the species known to him, however, one, of which 

 he makes no mention (R. vitiensis, Fairm.), has been de- 

 scribed from the Fiji Islands and I am now adding two 

 others recently received from the same islands, where one of 

 them at least is a serious pest, its grubs feeding upon the 

 roots of sugar-cane. 



The two new species are smaller than the one first 

 described, of which the British Museum possesses a co-type. 



