1906.] NEW AFPaCAN CURCULIONID.E. 933 



Cape Colony : East London {Dr. G. B. Longstaf). 



Type in the Oxford Museum. 



Nearly allied to M. setarius Fahr., but in that species the setee 

 are inconspicuous, being much fewer and very minute ; the 

 rostrum and legs are also of a different colour, being testaceous 

 yellow. 



I have much pleasure in dedicating this species to Dr. LongstafT, 

 who has kindly entrusted to me the Curculionidfe which he 

 took during the recent visit of the British Association to South 

 Africa. 



Rhyparosomus mashunus, sp. nov, (Plate LXVI. fig. 8.) 



Long. 4|-6, lat. lf-2|- mm. 



Colour black, with dark brown scaling and thinly covered 

 throughout with stiff erect setaj ; elytra wath a common V-shaped 

 pale mai'king behind middle (often abraded), and sometimes with 

 ix broad pale lateral stiipe. 



Head rugoseiy punctured ; forehead plane, w^ith a short deep 

 central furrow and a shallower one on each side of it, all tln-ee 

 being continuous with the rostral furrows. Rostrum shorter 

 than the prothorax, broad, scarcely curved, its sides subparallel ; 

 upper surface with three deep continuous furrows of equal length, 

 the central one being rather broader than the others, beyond 

 these a short lateral basal stria. Antennce piceous, the scape 

 slender, abruptly clavate, sparsely setose ; funicle with the two 

 basal joints elongate, the first much longer than the second. 

 Prothorax as long as broad in ^ , slightly broader than long in § , 

 apical margin slightly rounded, ocular lobes distinct, basal mai'gin 

 strongly rounded, sides gradually dilated from base to beyond 

 middle, abruptly narrowed at apex ; upper surface almost plane, 

 the lateral margins retuse, rugoseiy and confiuently punctured 

 throughout. Elytra elongato- ovate, much narrower in c? , deeply 

 emarginate at base, the basal angles projecting sharply forwards ; 

 shoulders oblique, with a veiy faint humeral tubei'cle, sides 

 paiallel from there to beyond middle ; uppei- surface convex with 

 shallowly punctured stiia?, with the suture and alternate intervals 

 more raised than the others but without any tubercles ; the 

 intervals rugoseiy punctured and each with a row of stiff erect 

 setfe, which are more numerous on the elevated intervals. Legs 

 with dark brown scaling, rarely with paler markings, and set with 

 .stiff erect set?e ; anterior pairs of tibife very strongly curved near 

 apex in both sexes, but especially in the c? • 



Mashonaland : Salisbury and Marandella's {G. A. K. M.). 



Types, S in the British Museum, § in the Oxford Museum. 



A common species, occurring round the I'oots of various low- 

 growing plants. It is evidently allied to R. htcequalis Boh. (type 

 missing), but, according to the description, that species differs in 

 having a transverse row of three foveolse on the thorax, the elytra 

 are truncate at the base, and the raised intervals have rows of 

 remote obtuse tubercles. 



