Mr. C. 0. Waterliouse on new Coleoptera. 381 



XLVIII. — Note on two Species of Lucanoid Coleoptera, allied 

 to Cladognathus bison. By Charles O. Waterhouse. 



The British Museum has recently acquired an interesting 

 series of Coleoptera from the Salomon Islands, collected by 

 Mr. C. M. Woodford. Among them is a fine series of a 

 Cladognathus allied to C. bison. In the Museum collection 

 there is a good series of another species from Cape York, 

 Torres Straits (Thursday I., Murray I., and Cornwallis I.), 

 and New Guinea. These three species closely resemble each 

 other in general form and colour ; but C. bison is easily dis- 

 tinguished from the two others by its having reddish-yellow 

 spots on all the femora and often on the sternum. The two 

 other species are extremely alike, with nearly uniformly 

 coloured legs ; those from the Salomon Islands, however, 

 have the femora more castaneous than the species from 

 Torres Straits. 



I am in doubt which of these two species is to be referred 

 to C. cincius, Montr., from Woodlark I. ; but the proximity of 

 Woodlark 1. to the Salomons, and the fact that Montrouzier 

 states that the large males of C. ductus have five or six 

 teeth on the inner side of the mandibles, incline me to believe 

 that the Salomon-Islands species is the true C. cinctus. The 

 species from Torres Straits I propose to call C. limbatus. 



Cladognathus limbatus^ n. sp. 



General form and colour of C. bison ; nearly black, with 

 the elytra and sometimes the thorax dark pitchy brown. The 

 larger males with the sides of the thorax yellowish (with a 

 black spot in the middle of the yellow) ; the smallest males 

 and the females with a reddish-yellow crescent-shaped mark 

 at the sides. The elytra with a broad margin of yellow, as in 

 C. bison, but narrowed at the extreme apex as it approaches 

 the suture. Legs black. The large males have two teeth 

 beyond the middle of the mandibles, with the apex furcate ; 

 the smaller males have the mandibles serrate. Thorax with 

 the posterior angles sinuate. 



cJ . Length (with the mandibles) 10-24 lines. 

 ? . „ „ lH-16 „ 



This species difters from C. bison in having the legs uni- 

 form black. The mandibles of the large males have much 

 fewer teeth, and the yellow band of the elytra narrows as it 

 reaches the suture. The large triangular tooth at the base of 

 the mandibles appears also to be much more simple. 



The species from the Salomon Islands, which I believe to 

 be the true C. cinctus, differs from C. limbatus in the males 



