1904. | Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 91 
than the clypeus, plane; antenne 10-jointed in both sexes, the 
club joints varying in number from 8 to 4, always smaller 
and more ovate in the female than in the male; prothorax nearly 
straight laterally from the median part to the basal angle which is 
distinct although somewhat rounded, deeply bi-sinuate in the anterior 
part the angles of which are sharp and projecting; elytra elongated, 
slightly ampliated laterally from the third part of the length but 
only slightly sinuate there, not much convex (except the females 
of C. caffrina and C. tumida), rounded behind and covering the 
greatest part of the propygidium; pygidium convex, sub-vertical, 
not drawn inwards, nor as broad as the penultimate abdominal 
segment, these segments are convex, but although the suture is 
very plain they are not retractible; pectus moderately densely 
hairy; legs moderately long, anterior tibiz uni- or bi-dentate out- 
wardly, and having a very long inner spur, posterior ones with a 
plain oblique ridge, hind femora not very robust, tarsi moderately 
long, slender, each claw having underneath a membranous, con- 
spicuous quadrate lobe which extends from the base to the median 
part, and is vertically truncate there, the anterior part of the claw is 
slender and very abruptly curved. 
As stated in the diagnosis of this genus, the species can be divided 
into two groups according to the shape of the clypeus which is incised 
laterally or not, but this character has not a great generic im- 
portance, occurring as it does in species closely allied in general 
form as well as in others the general facies or even size of which 
differ somewhat considerably. An attempt has been made by Herr 
Brenske to split the genus mainly according to the number of joints 
composing the club of the male, and occasionally also of the female. 
This character is so much more fictitious that the joints of the 
pedicel abutting on to the club are always compressed, aculeate 
and laminate with a tendency to form an additional joint, even 
in several cases the inner joint of the club is only one-quarter of 
the length of the one following, and this same joint varies in length 
according to species; this goes far to prove that a specific character 
is thus made to serve as a generic one. I attach much more 
importance to the disappearance of an antennal joint than to the 
increase or decrease in length of one of the club joints ; but even the 
distinctive value of the presence or absence of one or more joints in 
the antennz is somewhat illusory when we find that in genera very 
closely allied to Camenta the male has a 10-jointed antenna and the 
female a 9-jointed one, and again in the male of a species belonging 
to a genus or sub-genus which but for this character could not be 
separated at all from Camenta, the antenne are 9-jointed. 
