PHYTODIJEXUS. 



219 



The genus, as a whole, is in need of revision, owing to inaccu- 

 racies arising from lack of structural distinctions and the in- 

 stability of coloration, upon which too much reliance has formerly 

 been placed. 



Table of Species. 



1 (-2) First abdominal segment not basally 



explanate corypheeus, Grav. 



2 (1) First abdominal segment distinctly 



explanate basally capu<e, sp. n. 



151. Phytodiaetus coryphaeus, 9mv. 



Phutodietus cori/pfueus, Gravenhorst, Ichn. Eur. ii, 1829, p. 945, 

 excl. var. 3 ; Taschenberg, Zeits. Ges. Nat. 1863, p. 292 (?) ; 

 Schmiedeknecht, Zool. Jahr. 1900, p. 340 ; Morley, Iclm. Brit, 

 iii, 1908, p. 243 (d 1 $). 



d $ . Head not very narrow behind the eyes ; epistoma a little 

 prominent ; $ with palpi and mandibles (except apically) testa- 

 ceous, clypeus ferruginous and the orbits flavous on the vertex ; 

 J with the whole face, mouth, cheeks and frontal orbits to occiput 



flavous. Antennce slender and 

 a little longer than the body ; 

 black, often dull ferruginous 

 beneath, but never clear red or 

 testaceous. Thorax black ; of 

 2 often with only a small cal- 

 losity before the radix, but 

 more usually with subhamate 

 lines before and callosities be- 

 neath radix and a centrally 

 interrupted metathoracic fas- 

 cia, more or less flavous; <5 

 with part or whole of pro- 

 and meso-sternum,and a small 

 mark on mesopleurse, also 

 flavous. Scutellum with a basal 

 dot on either side, its apex, a 

 dot or line on the postscu- 

 tellum, and often the freni 

 narrowly, flavous. Abdomen shining, with all, or only the apical 

 segments, or none of them, with narrow and obsolete glaucous 

 margins ; basal segment of <5 not more than half as long again as, 

 of $ very little longer than, apically broad, in both sexes ex- 

 planate towards the apex, not parallel-sided nor basally explanate ; 

 d 1 with second and third segments quadrate and the fourth, like 

 the second and following of $ , transverse ; <3 valvulae exserted ; 

 abdomen 4 millim., terebra 2^ millim. Legs red ; coxae black with 

 the hind pair of $ usually mainly red, d" sometimes with the anterior 



Fig. 51. Phytodicetus coryphaus, Grav. 



