Mordellidfc of the Fiji Islands. ^iCt'\ 



Elytra witliout scutellar spots; two white 



spots at base of thorax vilie/miij sp. n. 



3. Thorax, basal iialf of elytra aud le^'s obscurely 

 rediUsh, aiiteun;e and abduineii paler; elytra 

 each with three silvery spots niyroterniinatu, sp. n. 



Black, except labrum, palpi, base of antennas, 

 Janterior femora, and posterior tibial spurs, 

 which are testaceous; elytra with two 

 oblique silvery fascite veitchi, sp. n. 



Mordella decemguttata, Fabr. 



Fabricius, Syst. Eleutb. ii. 1801, p. 123; Montrouzier, Ann. Soc. Agr. 



Lyon, vii. 1, 1855, p. 31. 

 Mordella plurinotatu, 131auchard, Voy. Pole Sud, iv. 1853, p. 190, 



pi. xii. tig. IG. 



Two specimens — 1(F. P. Jepson), 1909, "on orange-tree"; 

 1 (IF. Greenwood), 1. v. 19.21. Mts. Lautoka. 



This identification and synonymy are perhaps a little doubt- 

 ful. Fabricius orin^inally described the species from Java, 

 but this Avas probably in error; at least I have seen no 

 specimen answering to the description from anywhere in 

 that region. Montrouzier later more fully described what 

 lie considered to be the same species from Woodlark Id. 

 (near the S.E. end of New Guinea). Except that he de- 

 scribes the spots as yellow (and in some allied species thev 

 are sometimes yellow), his description quite fits the specimens 

 from Fiji. Previously to this Blanchard had described and 

 figured M . plurinotata from Ccram, and with this also the 

 Fiji examples agree well. 



The Australian M. l4:-maculata, Macleay (? = J/. vitti- 

 collis, Lea), is very closely allied, but the thorax of the Fiji 

 s|)ecies is more quadrangular, more strongly transverse, and 

 differently marked, the sides lacking the white border and 

 the spots, except the basal row, not confluent or connected 

 by lines. 



Mordella vitiensis, sp. n. 



Large, black, clothed with black pubescence, variegated 

 with white spots and lines which are arranged as follows : — 

 head, a narrow white margin on each side of base; thorax, 

 four white spots in a slightly arcuate line a little before the 

 middle, the outer pair near the sides, a round spot on each 

 side of base opposite the middle of the base of each elytron ; 

 elytra^ a round spot (No. 1) on each directly behind the 

 basal thoracic spot nearly as far from it as the two latter are 

 from one another, a minute spot (No. 2) a little behind this 



