OF NEW ZEALAND. 273 



479. P. nitidulUS, n.s. Shining, very dark brown, the suture and 

 sides of the elytra and the scutellum reddish, legs and antennae red, the 

 under-surface chestnut-red, the breast with long yellow hairs, the abdo- 

 men with short ones. 



The head is rather short, the anterior portion flattened and deflexed, 

 the front margin slightly elevated at each side of the middle, this frontal 

 part is coarsely, but not deeply, rugosely punctate, and there are only a 

 few impressions behind. The prothorax is of the usual form, with a 

 slight obtuse frontal elevation, a slight elongate depression behind the 

 protuberance, and a smaller elongate one in front of the scutellum, the 

 rest of its surface bears many fine distant punctures. Scutellum large, 

 with its base densely and rugosely punctate. The elytra are slightly 

 grooved on each side of the suture, which is quite smooth, their surface 

 is covered with punctiform impressions, which are coarser and more 

 rugose near the sides than elsewhere, there are indications of longitu- 

 dinal lines, but the sculpture becomes quite obsolete towards the apex. 



The front tibia bear three more or less distinct rows of rather small 

 punctures, the middle pair are impunctate, and the posterior are nearly 

 smooth. 



The metasternum is very sparingly and distantly punctured, so that 

 it appears smooth and shining, but is longitudinally depressed on the 

 middle; \h& pygidium is rather finely punctured, the punctation becoming 

 very dense near the sides. 



The form of the head differs from that of P. truncatus and P. 

 stupidus, being about intermediate between them as regards the differ- 

 ence of plane, but the frontal portion is short, obliquely truncated at 

 each side towards the apex, which, owing to the slightly reflexed rim 

 (just at each side of the front of the clypeus only), seems to be a little 

 emarginate. 



The insect is rather broader and more glossy than usual ; the sculp- 

 ture of the femora, as well as that of the tibias, is much finer and more 

 sparing than is generally the case, and the base of the thorax is more 

 distinctly bisinuated, and therefore distinctly lobed in the middle. 



Length, 7 \ lines ; breadth, 4^. 



Described from one example found by Professor Hutton at the 

 Barrier Island. 



Genus of Doubtful Position. 

 Brounia. 



Sharp ; Entom. Mon. Mag., August, 1878,^. 49. 



Anterior parts of the head atrophied, so that the antennae appear 

 inserted near one another on its front edge, eyes large and conspicuous ; 

 antenna eleven-jointed, the basal joints small, those towards the extrem- 

 ity emitting an elongate lobe ; beneath, the parts of the mouth seem 

 small but exposed, and the apical joints of the labial and maxillary /a^/ 

 rather large and subsecuriform. The prothorax is so formed that its 



L ii 



