1885.] PHYTOPHAGOUS COLEOPTERA OF JAPAN. 735 



1 must separate this species, of which only a single specimen is 

 before me, from all others described, on account of the strong and 

 distantly placed double lines of punctures at the elytra, in connection 

 with the black legs and antennae. 



Genus Sph^roderma, Stephens. 



SPHiERODERMA FUSCICORNIS, Baly. 



Var. a. Antennae entirely fulvous. 



Var. h. Elytra black, antennae either fulvous or the terminal joints 

 fuscous ; underside and the posterior or all femora black. 



In comparing the var. h with Mr. Baly's type, I can come to no 

 other conclusion than to consider the species a very variable one 

 as regards colour and also size. Many specimens of the normal 

 colouring were obtained by Mr. Lewis during his first journey to 

 Japan, and are again contained in the present collection taken in 

 company with those in which the elytra are black. In other 

 respects I can find no differences, and although the possibility is not 

 excluded that the two forms are not identical, I prefer at present to 

 consider them as such. In all, the thorax and the elytra are finely 

 and closely punctured, that of the elytra very irregularly arranged in 

 rows. There is a single specimen before me in which the elytra 

 have a distinct fulvous tint as well as a darker one, thus pi'oving that 

 either one or the other colour may predominate. 



Obtained at Kashiwagi, Tsumago, Fukushima. 



Sph^roderma balyi, sp. uov. 



Piceous or black below ; head, basal joints of the antenna^, thorax, 

 and legs, the posterior femora excepted, fulvous ; elytra black, 

 finely geminate puuctate-striate. 



Var. Antennae entirely fulvous. 



Length 1 line. 



It will only be necessary to point out the differences between this 

 species and those closely alhed and described by Mr. Baly, of which 

 8. aiiicalis seems to be the nearest allied. In this species, however, 

 the posterior margin of the thorax is always partly black, and the 

 apices of the elytra fulvous, but the more important difference is to be 

 found in the less transverse and more strongly punctured thorax of 

 B. balyi, and in the different punctuation of the elytra, in which 

 the punctured rows are wider apart and arranged near the suture 

 in irregular double lines ; near the sides the rows of punctures are 

 single and much more distantly placed than in S. apicalis. There 

 are two specimens before me, in one of which the antennae, which do 

 not differ from those in the allied species, are fulvous, this colour 

 being restricted in the other specimen to the four first joints. 



Sph^roderma atra, sp. nov. 



Black ; four basal joints of the antennae and the tibiae fulvous ; 

 tliorax finely and closely punctured ; elytra more strongly semi- 

 regulaily punctate-striaie. 



Length I-I5 line. 



48* 



