306 Mr. C. N. Buikei- on 



Hypolithus holosericeiis, Dej. ? 



Above piceoiis, obscurely iridescent, densely clothed with 

 very short, pale yellowish pubescence. Head black, shiny ; 

 antennae, palpi, and labruiu reddisli yellow, the latter more 

 or less inf uscate basally. Legs flavescent. Prothorax : 

 marj^ins laterally, usually at apex and base medially, and 

 the epipleurpe red. Beneath piceous to piceous red. 



lltad hardly convex, short, transverse, densely and very 

 finely punctate, frontal impressions, on either side, slight 

 and transverse groove narrow. 



Prothorax very broad (3^ by 2^ mm.), -wider at base than 

 at apex, the former truncate, shallowly emarginate medially, 

 the latter broadly emarginate, its angles rounded, mode- 

 rately declivous ; sides gently arapliated to middle, very 

 little contracted to the sharply-rounded hind angles ; disc 

 hardly convex, finely, densely, and evenly punctate, median 

 groove very short, reaching neither apex nor base, lateral 

 basal impressions broad, shallow. 



Elytra hardly wider at base than base of prothorax, very 

 little widened immediataly below shoulders, sides straight to 

 beyond middle, gently rounded to and sinuate before apex, 

 hardly convex above, shortly pubescent and obscurely iri- 

 descent, moderately deeply striate, intervals ])laue, finely 

 shagreened, third, fifth, and seventh with obsolete spaced 

 punctures, but sometimes wanting. 



Beneath smooth, shiny, impunctate. 



Hah. Xatal Coast districts. A common species. 



A well-marked race of the above occurs at Salisbury, 

 S. Rhodesia, the size of which averages a trifle more (10-11^ 

 by 3f— i^ mm,). It differs as follows : — puncturation of 

 head and prothorax a little coarser and less dense, the latter 

 less transverse, the sides more contracted to base, which is 

 therefore considerably less wide than the elytra at base ; the 

 elytra (especially in the females) are elongate-ovate, instead 

 of parallel as in both sexes of the Natal race, and the 

 puncturation of the elytral intervals is less fine and the 

 pubescence a little sparser. 



Hab. Salisbury, S. Rhodesia. Collected by the Rev. J. A. 

 O'Neil. 



Since writing the above, I have received from Delagoa 

 Bay a female example, which in size (12 mm. long by 4j mm. 

 wide) agrees almost exactly with Boheman's dimensions for 

 his " mar ff mica His. ^' It is proportionately as transverse as 

 the Natal coastal race, but the puncturation of the head and 

 prothorax is coarser, like that of the South Rhodesian race. 



