212 Mr. G. C. Champion on the 



69. Melyris scutellaris. 



Zygia scutellaris, Muls. Mem. Acad. Lyon, i. p. 190 (1851) ' ; Opiuc. 

 Ent. i. p.50(1852) 2 ; Schilsky, Kaf. Europ.xxxiv. No. 95 (?) (1897) 3 . 

 Melyris sp. ?, Champ. Ent. Mo. Mag. 1. p. 78 (1914) 4 . 



$ . Ventral segments 3-5 without linear folds, 5 foveate 

 in the middle, 5 feebly, and 6 deeply, emarginate, 6 bi- 

 impressed. 



Hab. Algeria, Biskra, Boghar; Tunisia, Tozeur 4 (G. C.C.). 



A $ captured at Tozeur in May 1913, a locality to the 

 south-east of Biskra, is almost certainly a form of this 

 species. It lias a bright red scutellum and wholly black, 

 sharply tricostate elytra; the tarsal claws moderately long 

 and feebly toothed at about the middle, as in Zygia oblonga, 

 F., the tooth being placed near the tip in the similarly- 

 coloured insect here referred to M. {Zygia) notaticollis, Pic. 

 A pair in the Oxford Museum, labelled "Zygia oblonga" 

 without locality, from which the above-noted <J -characters 

 are taken, must also belong here; they have blue elytra and 

 the head testaceous in front ; the tarsi, unfortunately, are 

 wanting in the $ . The female only of Z. scutellaris appears 

 to have been seen by Mulsant and Schilsky. 



70. Melyris notaticollis. 

 ? Zygia notaticollis, Pic, L'Echange, xxi. p. 130 (1905). 



J . Intermediate and posterior tarsi with the basal joint 

 drawn out into a sharp curved spur at the apex beneath; 

 ventral segments 3-5 without linear folds, 5 foveate in the 

 middle, feebly emarginate at apex, 6 bi-impressed and 

 deeply emarginate ; median lobe of sedeagus rather broach, 

 subtruncate at tip. 



Hab. N.E. Africa, Obock in French Somaliland {type of 

 Pic). 



A male without locality-label, received many years ago by 

 the British Museum, is referred to this species. It is very 

 like Zygia oblong a, F., but differs from the same sex of that 

 species in wanting the ciliate linear folds on the ventral 

 segments 3-5, and in having the basal joint of the inter- 

 mediate and posterior tarsi dentiform, as in the same sex of 

 the Arabian M. bicalcarata. This species has the front 

 of the head, the antennae to near the tip, the prothorax (an 

 oblong infuscate patch on the posterior part of the disc 

 excepted), scutellum, legs, and under surface testaceous, 

 the rest of the head black, and the elytra nigro-cseruleous ; 

 the prothorax transversely subquadrate, and less narrowed 



