African and Asiatic Species of Melyris. 203 



conical and clothed with long erect blackish, hairs as in 

 M. conicicollis, Gorh. : but it differs from that insect in 

 having a shorter and broader head, sharper hind angles 

 to the prothorax, more finely punctured, duller elytra, and 

 the ventral segments of the ? in great part infuscate, these 

 segments being probably wholly testaceous in the unknown 

 £ . The conical hairy prothorax, &c, separate it from 

 M. pectoralis, and its much larger size, &c, from M. olivacea, 

 Guer. 



59. Melyris gestroi. 

 Zygia gestroi, Pic. Ann. Mus. Genova, xxxix. p. 507 (1899). 



Hub. Abyssinia, Gallago, Salole, and Hauacio (Ruspoli, in 

 Mus. Genoa). 



The types of this species are $ ? . M. gestroi is a form 

 of the insect here identified as M. pleura/is, Fairin., differing 

 from it in the wholly green metasternum and the slightly 

 longer and narrower head ; the latero-basal depressions of 

 the prothorax are deep in both of them. Pic does not 

 mention M. pleuralis, and compares his species with 

 M. festiva, lleiche, and M. versicolor, Ancey, to which it 

 bears but little resemblance. 



60. Melyris pectoralis. 



Melyris pectoralis, Reiche, in Ferret and Galinier's Voyage Abvssin., 

 Ins. p. 293 (1842); Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1852, p. 97. 



Melyris ceruginosa, Roth, in "Wiegm. Archiv, xvii. 1, p. 121 (1851). 



Melyris hecmorrhoidalis, Roth, 1. c. 



Melyris festiva, Gorh. Ann. Mus. Genova, xviii. p. 509 (1883) (nee 

 Reiche). 



$ . Ventral segment 5 broadly arcuate-emarginate, 6 short, 

 deeply foveate, notched at tip; median lobe of ledeagus 

 stout, pointed at apex. 



? . Terminal abdominal dorsal and ventral segments 

 black, the ventral one cleft. 



Hob. Abyssinia (Mus. Brit.; Mus. Oxon.; Raff ray, ex 

 coll. Sharp) ; Adda Galla, Harar, Bogos, Scioa, &c. (Mas. 

 Genoa) ; Zegi Tsana (Degen, in Mus. Brit.); Junction 

 Camp-E. Elgon (Dr. Bayer, in Mus. Congo Beige : iv.-v. 

 1914: ?). 



There are upwards of 200 examples of this species in the 

 Genoa Museum, including a $ marked " typus/' received 

 from M. Oberthur in 1878, and many more in the British 

 Museum. Specimens of it are labelled M. pectoralis in all the 

 collections I have examined. Reiche's description is rather 

 vague, and Gorham identified the Genoa Museum series as 



