58 Transactions South African Philosophical Society. |vow. x. 
Owing to the antennal club being 4-jointed, Burmeister considered 
his example to be amale. But in the type of Microtrachelus the 
antennal club is 5-jomted and longer than the pedicel in the male, 
and 4-jointed and as long as the pedicel in the female. It is there- 
fore not improbable that this species belongs to Microtrachelus. 
GEN. ABLABEROIDES, Blanch., 
Catal. Coll. Entom., 1850, p. 102. 
Spherotrachelus, Brensk., Berl. Ent. Zeit., 1900, p. 82. 
Trochaloserica, Brensk., loc. cit., p. 82. 
Mentum nearly similar to that of Trochalus, but usually wider at 
the base ; palpi identical, maxillaee with three superposed teeth, the 
two lower ones bifid ; clypeus always more or less narrowly constricted 
laterally in front, as well as sinuate between the genal projection and 
the constricted part, the anterior margin is strongly reflexed, and in 
the majority of species its median part is very strongly dentate, in 
which case the tooth is continued as a longitudinal keel dividing the 
strongly depressed anterior.part into two, or it is merely angular, in 
that case the anterior part is not hollowed, there is a clypeal keel 
which is seldom indistinct, and a frontal grooved suture, which, 
however, turns into a short keel in a few species ; the eyes are 
almost completely closed (Ablaberoides) or the hind keel does not 
coalesce with the genal canthus, but is always developed (Zrochalo- 
serica); the antenne are 10-jointed with the club tri-jointed and 
very long in the male (Ablaberoides), or 9-jointed (Spherotrachelus) ; 
prothorax short, strongly transverse, fringed with long sete; scu- 
tellum large ; elytra short, sub-parallel or ampliato-ovate, in which 
case they are more convex than when sub-parallel, punctate, striate 
or non-striate with the exception of the juxta-sutural stria which is 
always plainly visible; pygidium moderately convex; pro- and 
meso-sternum hairy; anterior tibiew bi- or tri-dentate, legs of T'o- 
chalus but with the anterior trochanters not so strongly dilated. 
The characters assigned by Brenske to his genus Spherotrochalus 
agree very well with those of Ablaberoides, of which I have seen the 
type, except that the antenne are 10- instead of 9-jointed, and T'ro- 
chaloserica, also one of Brenske’s genera would seem to differ mainly 
in both eye-keels not being in contact. After careful examination I 
came to the conclusion that completely or incompletely closed eye- 
keels did not coincide with 10- or 9-jointed antenne, and that these 
characters can be made use of merely to group the species, not to 
divide them into genera. 
