﻿164 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



LUPERUS PRATTI, n. Sp. 



Black ; the lower portion of the head, the base of the antennae and the 

 legs, flavous ; head and thorax impunctate ; elytra scarcely perceptibly 

 punctured. Length, 1£ line. 



Head entirely impunctate, shining, black, the lower portion obscure 

 flavous or testaceous (sometimes piceous), the frontal tubercles strongly 

 raised and broad in shape, the carina short ; antennae stout and rather 

 short, about half the length of the body, the three or four lower joints 

 flavous, the rest black, the third joint scarcely longer than the second one ; 

 thorax about one-half broader than long, the sides scarcely rounded, straight 

 near the base, the angles obsolete, the surface entirely impunctate ; elytra 

 extremely finely punctured, the punctures only visible with a very strong 

 lens, the interstices smooth, here and there furnished with single erect 

 hairs ; under side black ; legs flavous, the base of the femora sometimes 

 darker, the first joint of the posterior tarsi not longer than the two following 

 joints together; the tibiae with a small spine. 



The pale lower portion of the face, the entirely impunctate 

 thorax, and the extremely finely punctured elytra separate 

 L. pratti from several European species with a similar black 

 upper and under surface and pale legs. Amongst the rather 

 numerous specimens obtained a variety is present in which the 

 lower portion of the face and the legs are partly piceous, and it 

 is possible that specimens may be found in which these parts are 

 entirely black. The present species cannot be confounded with 

 L. capito, Weise, on account of the black elytra and abdomen. 



LUPERUS HIRSUTUS. (PL II., fig. 9.) 



This species, described by myself from Japan (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc, 1885, p. 742), was obtained numerously at Chang- Yang. 



Luperus ^nescens ?, Weise. 

 I refer very doubtfully a small Luperus to Weise's species. 

 This and several others, lately described by this author, 

 are so closely allied to L. flaviventris, Motsch., that it is almost 

 impossible to determine these similarly coloured species without 

 a comparison of the types, especially as varieties in regard 

 to punctuation and even shape have been described by the 

 same author. The present insect is of metallic-green colour 

 above, the abdomen being (as in several others of its congeners) 

 flavous. Weise describes, however, the punctuation of the thorax 

 in nearly all of his species as obsolete (" verloschen ") ; in the 

 insect before me the thorax is closely and distinctly punctured, 

 the punctures being of different sizes ; the elytra also are very 

 distinctly and closely punctate, with the interstices slightly 

 rugose ; the shape of the thorax in this and most of the allied 

 species is subject to variation, according to the sexes; in the 

 male it is scarcely broader than long, in the female it is distinctly 

 broader; the antennae also vary in length, according to the 

 sexes, and this variation prevents a certain determination, when 



