;i78 On Soidh African Species o/ Ilypolitlius. 



Head smooth or finely aciculate, shiny, frontal fovea? and 

 transverse suture very fine. 



Prothorax very transverse, more than one-third wider than 

 long, apex trniicate and convex medially, a little sinuate and 

 very declivous to frontal angles, which are briefly rounded 

 and produced ; sides gently rounded to about middle, 

 straightly and very slightly contracted to hind angles, which 

 are obtusely right ; base nearly \ wider than apex, siiallowly 

 emarginate medially, more or less finely, transversely 

 aciculate on disc, densely, confluently punctate about sides 

 and broad, shallow basal depressions ; median liue fine and 

 short, reaching neither apex nor base. 



Elytra truncate, hardly wider than prothorax at base, 

 humeral angles sharply quadrate, ver}' briefly widened below, 

 sides straight and parallel to beyond middle, then gently, 

 hardly sinuately rounded to apices ; nearly plane above, 

 moderately deeply striate, intervals densely punctulate and 

 quite plane. Spaced punctures on third, fifth, and seventh 

 intervals. 



Closely allied to H. castaneus, mihi. Prothorax a trifle 

 more transverse, otherwise similar; elytra equally parallel- 

 sided, but less narrowly elongate, and the puncturation a 

 little finer. Apart from the colour, which is quite different, 

 the iridescence is usually less obscure, though as in castaneus 

 it is sometimes altogether wanting. 



The dimensions of ^' propinquus'^ agree well with those of 

 Peringuey's (not Boheman^s) " melancholicus'' and it is 

 quite possible that it may be that insect, especially as it 

 appears to be a common insect with a fairly wide coastal 

 range. Peringue\', however, states that there are only 

 seriate punctures on the third and faintly on the fifth. In 

 all the examples before me these punctures are present on 

 intervals 3, 5, and 7, though sometimes they are not very 

 conspicuous on the two latter intervals. 



Hah. Natal Coast ; Delagoa Bay and Inhambane (Mo- 

 zambique Prov.). A common species. Examples from 

 Mozambique are a little more robust and more roughly 

 sculptured. 



Hypolithus turbatus, Per. ? 



I have four specimens which agree fairly well with the 

 description of above {vide Ann. S. Afr. Mus. vol. v. p. 279), 

 but they are considerably smaller, i. e. 6| mm. long by 2| mm. 

 wide. Those of '^turbatus" are given as 7| mm. long by 

 2^ mm. wide. 



