African and Asiatic Species of Melyris. 163 



b. Antennae shorter, strongly serrate. 



a 1 . Species small, black or metallic, above and beneath, 



elytral margins red in M. rufomarginata Nos. 3-13. 



b x . Species larger and more robust, metallic above, the 

 legs in part and abdomen rufescent, the meta- 

 sternuni green Nos. 14, 15. 



3. Melyris nigra. 



Melyris niger, Fabr. Spec. Ins. i. p. 67 (1781) l ; Eut. Syst. i. p. 226 

 (1792) 2 ; Syst. Eleuth. i. p. 311 (1801) 3 ; Oliv. Ent. ii. 21, p. 5, t. 1. 

 figs. 3 a, b 4 (nee M. nigra, Schiisky, Kaf. Europ. xxxiv. no. 97, 1897). 



Melgrls nigrita, Gory, in litt. (in Mus. Brit, and Mus. Oxon.). 



Oblong, opaque above, moderately shining beneath, nigro- 

 piceous or black, the basal joints of the antennae slightly 

 rufescent ; thickly clothed with rather stiff blackish pub- 

 escence, which forms a conspicuous close fringe along the 

 margins of the body, the abdomen also with long black hairs 

 at the tip ; the head and prothorax densely punctulate and 

 reticulate. Head short, rather broad, the eyes convex ; 

 antennae short. Prothorax transverse, arcuately narrowed 

 anteriorly, obsoletely canaliculate, the lateral carina feebly 

 sinuate. Elytra moderately long, at the base very little 

 broader than the prothorax, slightly widened posteriorly and 

 rounded at the apex ; sharply tricostate to near the tip, the 

 interspaces coarsely and regularly triseriate-punctate, the 

 inferior apical margin sharply crenulate. Beneath alu- 

 taceous, sparsely, minutely punctate. Legs slender ; tarsal 

 claws sharply toothed near the base. 



S . Ventral segment 5 transversely excavate in the middle, 

 broadly emarginate at tip, 6 smoother, unimpressed, notched 

 at apex. 



? . Ventral segment 6 deeply sulcate down the middle. 



Length 4-5^, breadth 2-2^ mm. (<??.) 



Hab. South Africa, Cape of Good Hope (Mus. Brit. } 

 Mus. Oxon.), Table Mountain (TV. Bevins : J ? ), Cape 

 Town (G. A. K. Marshall). 



The type (?) of this species in the Banksian collection 

 (preserved in the British Museum) has been carefully 

 cleaned, and it proves to be a S. African insect (as is also 

 M. viridis, F.), which can be exactly matched in a series of 

 eight examples from the Cape. Fabricius in his earlier 

 papers r 2 gave no locality for M. nigra, but in 1801 3 he added 

 " Tanger," obviously in error. Schilsky's M. nigra = 

 granulala, F. 



