SCOTT—COLEOPTERA; HYDROPHILIDA, HISTERIDA 199 
Angola. Monsieur d’Orchymont compared the Aldabra specimens with a 2 from Tonkin 
determined as Berosus acutispina Fairmaire: he found certain differences in punctuation 
and form, especially in the form of the tarsal claws, which are much shorter in the 
Aldabra specimens, and in the front tarsus more arcuate, than in the Tonkin specimen. 
In view of Monsieur Lesne’s determination it appears possible that the Tonkin specimen 
is not of the same species as the true acutispina described by Fairmaire from 
Madagascar. 
I am unable to say if the Madagascan acuwtispina Fairmaire is the same as the 
African gracilispina Régimbart, but at least they seem to be extremely closely allied. 
Loc. Aldabra: from “ Wilson’s Well,” Takamaka, X.—XI. 1908 (Fryer). Mada- 
gascar. 
3. Berosus (Hnoplurus) prolongatus, Fairmaire. 
Berosus prolongatus Fairmaire, Ann. Soc. ent. France (sér. 4), viii. 1868, p. 196; 
Régimbart, op. cit., lxxii. 1903, p. 36; Alluaud, Liste Coléopt., p. 229. 
3 g, 1 2 from Aldabra: compared with a specimen (from Madagascar) kindly lent 
from the Paris Museum by Monsieur Lesne, who informs me that it appears quite similar to 
Fairmaire’s type. The Aldabra specimens are very much paler in colour, being almost 
entirely yellow: only the posterior part of the head, the extreme apex of the terminal 
joint of the maxillary and labial palps, the two longitudinal patches on the pronotum, the 
strie* and punctures on the interstices of the elytra, and some vague markings on the 
anterior and posterior parts of the elytra, are darker. In three of the Aldabra specimens 
the prothorax is a little shorter in proportion to its width than in the specimens lent from 
Paris. 
The punctuation on the pree-frons is finer and considerably less dense than on the 
post-frons, where it is coarser and closer, especially behind (at the extreme anterior margin 
of the pree-frons it is very fine and rather close). The intra-ocular systematic punctures 
form a line of confluent punctures nearly parallel to the margin of the eye and larger than 
the general punctuation. The scutellum is an elongated triangle with sharp apex, with 
a rather wide border raised a little above its general surface, and a line of punctures along 
either side against the border, the median part of the surface being impunctate. The 
setiferous punctures on the elytra are well marked but few, being most numerous on the 
3rd, 4th, 5th and 11th interstices. The one ? has the apex of its elytra a little more 
narrowly and deeply truncate-emarginate than the 3 ¢. 
Beneath, the prosternum and anterior coxee are pale yellowish; remainder of the 
underside dark, almost black, the middle coxze and mesosternum being slightly more 
dilute, very dark reddish-black : basal part of the femora scarcely infuscate in the anterior 
pair, almost black in the middle and posterior pairs; remainder of the femora, tibize and 
tarsi reddish-yellow. Under-surface of body, cox and basal portions of femora dull, 
* Tn all 4 specimens of B. (Enoplurus) prolongatus the manner in which the strize meet one another at the 
apex of the elytron is almost that which d’Orchymont informs me is normal in this subgenus: cf. footnote on 
B. acutispina, p. 198. 
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