1906.] 



NEW AFRICAN CURCULIONIDJE. 



917 



r,. (5.) 



7. (10.) 



8. (9.) 



9. (8.) 



Pi-othorax not elevated anteriorly. 



Posterior margin of scape sharply angulate. 



Prothorax not constricted or impressed near apex; first 

 joint of funicle equal to, or slightly longer than, second. 



P. squalidus Boll. 



Prothorax evidently constricted and with a transverse im- 

 pressed line near apex ; second joint of funicle longer than 

 first P. a Ifredensis, sp. nov. 



Posterior margin of scape simply rounded. 



Second joint of funicle evidently longer than first. 



P. gonopterus Boh. 



First joint of funicle as long as, or longer than, second. 



Rostrum not elevated dorsally ; first joint of funicle equal 

 to the second P. turgidus Boh. 



Rostrum subelevated dorsallj'- ; first joint of funicle longer 



than second P. pygmceus Boh. 



Bodj'' with green scaling. 



Rostrum separated from head by an angulated stria. 



P. argyreUus Sparrm. 



Rostrum separated from head by a straight transverse stria. 



Elytra with an infra-humeral tubercle P. virens Boh. 



Elytra with no infra-humeral tubercle P. prasinatus Boh. 



Elytra each with three rows of large tubercles, the inter- 



•spaces with large irregular punctures P. tuherculatus, sp. noT. 



I have received from Father O'l^eil a pair of P. gonopterus 

 Boh., taken in coitu on Uuphorbia. Boheman has described 

 the 6 only. The $ differs in having the basal margin of the 

 elytra truncate and narrower than the prothorax, w^hereas in 

 the c? the base is jointly sinua.te and as broad as the prothorax, 

 which it embraces. Owing to this the sides of the prothoiux 

 a.ppear to be much more strongly rounded in the $ . The latter 

 sex also has the infra-humeral tubercle of the elytra very much 

 more prominent ; the elytra are more convex, and the legs are 

 thinner, the posterior paii's of tibiae not being dilated as in the c? • 



From the sam^e indefatigable collector I have i-eceived also a 

 pair taken in coitu of a species which I attribute to P. pygmceus 

 Boh., the type of which is lost. In this case the only structural 

 diffei-ences consist in the much more convex or globose elytra and 

 the slightly more prominent humeral tubei'cle of the $ ; the leg 

 structure is practically identical, those of the cS being, if anything, 

 the thinner. But whereas the c? is of a uniform grey colour, 

 the $ is brown with the alternate intervals whitish, the stripes 

 being more or less broken up. 



The type of P. prasinatus Boh. is missing, but from the 

 description this species seems to differ from P. virens Boh. only 

 in the absence of the humeral tubercle. It is therefore highly 

 probable that the formei- will pi-ove to be merely the <S of the 

 latter. 



I examined the type of P. alternans Boh. at Stockholm, and 

 certainly cannot separate it fi'om P. gonopterus Boh., of which it 

 is no more than a slight vaiiation. 



The genus Piotypus was founded by Pascoe (Cist. Ent. ii. 1881, 

 p. 596) for the reception of his P. gravidus; but there is no 

 character by which this species can be separated from Platycopes, 

 with which it is here included. 



