from the Cape of Good Hope. 143 



(Subfam. Brachyderides.) 



Genus Stenotherium, nov. gen. (Plate XI. fig. 4.) 



Corpus sat parvum, elongatum, angustatum, dense squamosum, valde in- 

 sequale, costatum, sculpturatum : capite luie^ri angusto exserto ; rostro 

 (fig. 4 b) elougato lineari curvato, supra (prresertim ad basin) convexo ; 

 scrobe profunda valde obliqua, i. e. mox pone apicem (longissime ante 

 oculum) sub rostrum subito retrorsum desiliente ; oculis a margine pro- 

 tlioracis antico sat remotis, parvis subreni formi-ovatis demissis, obliquis 

 et valde lateralibus, — i. e. infra superficiem frontis basinque rostri con- 

 vexam omnino positis : prothorace angusto subconico, antice truncato 

 et pone marginem anticum leviter transversim constricto : scutello haud 

 observando : elytris angustis, subellipticis basi truncatis, valde longi- 

 tudinaliter costatis, singido ad apicem ipsum per se acuminato, apicem 

 bifidum efficiente. Antennee (fig. 4 a) elongatse, gracillimse, fere ad 

 apicem rostri insertse ; scapo elongato gracillimo basi flexuoso, ad apicem 

 ipsum valde et abrupte clavato ; funiculo 7-articulato filiformi, articu- 

 lato l ra0 secundo (brevi) paulo longiore, basi flexuoso, 3tio et 4*° secimdo 

 paulo longioribus (singulo primi longitudine et inter se aequalibus), 5*o ad 

 7mum inter se aequalibus (singulo secundi longitudine aut vix longiore) ; 

 clava elongata laxa 3-articulata et haud abrupta (articidatis l^o e t 2do 

 subsequalibus, hoc illo vix latiore, idtimo elongato conico acuto). 

 Pedes breviusculi, subajquales (antici vix reliquis longiores) ; femoribus 

 minus clavatis, muticis ; tibiis ad apicem truncatis muticis, ted intus 

 ibidem leviter productis: tarsis pseudotetrameris brevibus, articulato 

 S'io haud late bilobo (prcecedentibus vix latiore), idtimo breviusculo 

 clavato unguiculis parvis simplicibus munito. 

 A o-Tevds angustus, et dtjplov bestiola. 



The very extraordinary insect from which the above structural dia- 

 gnosis has been compiled is an undoubted member (as indeed I have 

 been, also, assured by both MM. Jekel and Waterhouse) of the sub- 

 family Brachyderkles, retaining the essential character of the various 

 groups around Polydrosus, though widely differing from them all in 

 its actual modifications ; and it would seem probable that the New 

 Zealand Rhadinosomus acuminatus may perhaps be found to be 

 amongst its nearest known allies. In its general contour and sur- 

 face it is not altogether unsuggestive (to me at least) of a very ex- 

 treme form of some of the longer-snouted, and more deeply sculp- 

 tured, SitoncB; nevertheless its real details of structure debar it 

 altogether from admission into that genus, it having scarcely a single 

 point in which it absolutely agrees with it. Indeed in its elongate 

 and very slender antennae (with their abruptly clubbed scape, almost 

 unthickened clava, and peculiar proportions of funiculus-joints — the 

 first, third, and fourth of which are subequal, whilst the second is 



