Species of New-Zealand Coleoptera. 417 



more sinuate behind and with more prominent angles. The 

 shoulders more dentiform and the claws of the front tarsi 

 thicker. There are four setas on each side of the thorax. 



(^ . Length 6^ ; breadth 2| lines. 



Manawatu Flats, 9 miles below the Gorge. One male and 

 three females, collected bj Mr. W. W. Smith and Mr. Frank 

 Park. 



P lerosticlius vexatus, sp. n. 



Elongate, glossy black ; legs and basal four joints of an- 

 tennai piceous ; palpi and tarsi piceo-rufous. 



Head moderately large and (including the prominent eyes) 

 as wide as front of thorax ; frontal ijnpressions elongate, 

 mandibles finely wrinkled, labrum emarginate. Thorax sub- 

 quadrate, its sides being only slightly rounded, and a little 

 narrowed but not sinuate behind ; posterior angles rectan- 

 gular, apex widely, base medially incurved ; disk very slightly 

 convex, median furrow well marlced, rather deep and broad 

 at extremities, but not attaining the base or apex ; basal 

 fossai not very large, well defined, distinctly separated from 

 the sides, the curved frontal impression very feebly marked; 

 it is only an eighth broader than long. Scutellum striate at 

 base. Elytra oblong, slightly rounded, rather abruptly 

 sinuate-angustate near the apices, humeral angles not denti- 

 form and but little wider than the thoracic angles ; disk 

 subdepressed, their st'-ise irregularly interrupted, some of 

 the punctures large and distant, those of the intermediate 

 esj)ecially, sixth and seventh rather more regularly striate- 

 punctate. 



Legs stout, posterior femora dilated, angulate and sub- 

 dentate below, so that the trochanters exactly fit into the 

 narrow basal portion. 



Male with one setigerous puncture each side of the middle, 

 but rather far apart, at the apex of tlie last ventral segment ; 

 the female with two. Anterior tarsi with the basal two joints 

 of the male slightly but appreciably prolonged at the outer 

 angle. 



Belongs to tiie section having four setas on both sides of 

 the thorax, and most nearly allied to P. ohsoletus, which, 

 however, has a more posteriorly narrowed and slightly sinuated 

 thorax and evidently shorter elytra. In both species the hind 

 tibiffi are slightly curvate, but P. vexatus is larger and has 

 stouter legs. P. ithaginis is also somewhat similar, but its 

 thorax is more narrowed behind and the elytral striae are 

 much less interrupted. P, prcecox, also from Wellington, 



