1290 COLEOPTERA 



This species, on account of its shorter legs and antennae and 

 acuminate elytra, approaches rather closely to Xylotoles ; but 

 the sculpture and facies are more those of the genus in which 

 I place it. 



Picton. Helms ; a small series of examples. 



Somatidia. 



2269. S. grandis, n.s. Robust, moderately elongate, convex ; 

 opaque, piceous, covered with decumbent yellowish-brown hairs, 

 but the clothing of the blackish sides and the common apical mark 

 of the hind-body cinereous and less conspicuous. 



Antenna stout, fusco-rufous, maculate, hairy, basal portion of 

 joints 3-11 paler; third joint much longer than fourth. Thorax 

 transversal, widest at the middle, thinly yet distinctly punctated. 

 Elytra ovate, bearing a few large punctures near the base, those 

 behind much smaller and more distant ; each elytron bears two 

 minute black crests. Legs stout, elongate, variegated in the usual 

 manner. 



There are no long hairs on the body, which is, moreover, free 

 from inequalities of surface, the back part of the head is impunctate, 

 the hind-body is rather long, and the shoulders are broader than the 

 base of the thorax. 



There are only two species like the present one, S. antarctica and 

 S. longipes ; from the former it differs in having a narrower and 

 more remotely punctured thorax and with few punctures on the 

 wing-cases ; from the latter it may be at once distinguished by the 

 elytral crests. It is the largest species that has been found as yet. 

 ?. Length, 4J; breadth, If lines. 



Mr. G. V. Hudson. Karori, near Wellington, under a log. 



OBS. The species of Somatidia are divisible into two sections. 

 In the first, consisting of Nos. 1048, 1049, 1052, 1054, and S. grandis, 

 the shoulders of the elytra, though rounded, are distinctly broader 

 than the ba.se of the thorax ; whilst the second section comprises 

 those in which the thorax and hind-body are more or less gradually, 

 but quite evidently, narrowed towards each other. 



2270. S. helmsi, n.s. (Sharp ; Trans. Ent. Soc., 1882, Part i., 

 p. 93.) Parum convexa, elytris dilatatis, ad apicem attenuatis ; 

 thorace parvo, ferrugineo, ad latera nigricante, utrinque tuberculo 

 parvo ; elytris nigro-fuscis, ad basin plaga maxima communi pallide 

 ochracea. 



Long., 4Jmm. 



This curious insect, with very sharply denned coloration, has the 

 body but little clothed with down, the variegation being caused by 

 tinting of the chitinous substance. The thorax is reddish, with the 

 sides darker, the lateral portions coarsely and closely punctured, the 

 middle less distinctly ; at each side behind the middle is a small but 

 prominent tubercle, and on the disc, just in front of the middle, are 

 two obscure elevations. Elytra narrowed at the base and apex, the 



