296 BUTELI10S. 



TYPE, Adoretus hirtellus, Cast. (Tropical Africa). 



Range. S.E. Europe, Asia, Africa and Madagascar. 

 Variable in form, but generally elongate and rather depressed. 

 Clothed above and beneath with short hairs, setae or scales, which 

 may be dense, scattered or aggregated into numerous small 

 patches, and sometimes interspersed with a few longer erect 

 hairs. Head very variable in size, sometimes very broad, with 

 large and prominent eyes. Clypeus large or small, generally 

 more or less semicircular, occasionally slightly emarginate in the 

 middle. Labrutn vertical and produced in the middle as a long 

 incurved rostrum, truncated at the end, where it meets the 

 mentum, and finely serrated on each side. Mandibles short and 

 stout, separated by the rostrum, each having a large basal molar 

 and a broad rounded external ramus. Maxilla short and stout, 

 with a strongly chitinised lobe provided with about four very 

 strong short teeth set obliquely ; the palpi rather long. Mentum 

 short and broad, deeply emarginate at the middle of the anterior 

 edge and deeply constricted at the sides for the insertion of the 

 palpi. Antennae normally 10-jointed, in a few species 9-jointed. 

 Pronotum short and scutellum small. Prosternum sometimes 

 forming a well-elevated vertical process behind the front coxae. 

 Elytra closely, not serially punctured, with more or less visible 

 narrow sutural, lateral and three discoidal costae; apical angles 

 generally rounded off. The uniformity in the sculpture of the 

 elytra is a rather characteristic feature. In certain species there 

 is a peculiar smooth opaque lateral border (epipleura), due to the 

 enlargement of the usually narrow reflexed part of the elytron, 

 which in most species is only conspicuous near the shoulder. 

 When dilated in this way (as in A. renardi, cpipleuralis, etc.) the 

 epipleura has always a very different texture from the remainder 

 of the surface, from which it is separated by a very sharp carina. 

 The pygidium is generally clothed with erect hairs, which are 

 short at the base and become gradually longer towards the most 

 prominent part, sometimes forming a distinct tuft. The sides of 

 the abdomen are generally evenly rounded, but in a certain 

 number of the species there is a special modification which appears 

 to have the object of securing an extra close contact between the 

 outer edges of the elytra and the body beneath. A sharp con- 

 tinuous ledge runs along each side on the line corresponding with 

 the lateral margin of the elytron, and the posterior edge of the 

 penultimate dorsal segment is similarly elevated. But this 

 posterior ledge does not follow the line of the margin of the 

 segment to the side, where it meets the lateral margin at an 

 angle, but cutting across the angle curves forward to meet the 

 lateral carina. In the small triangle so cut off on each side of 

 the propygidium lies the last spiracle, which thus has the appear- 

 ance of lying outside the segment to which it belongs. In a few 

 species (e. g. Adoretus bicaudattts, vitticauda and nephriticits) the 

 spiracle is not outside the short connecting ridge, but stands 

 actually in it. If the presence or absence of this abdominal 



