1906.] COLEOPTERA OF THE GENUS SCIOBIUS. 251 



however, appears to be normal. These distinctions cannot be re- 

 garded as of specific vakie, for in the long series which I have 

 been able to examine I find a certain proportion of intermediate 

 forms, which render it impossible to separate specifically the two 

 extremes. 



On one of my females of this species there is a note which I 

 made in Stockholm, to the effect that this was the form which 

 Boheman regarded as the $ of his histrigicollis. In this he was 

 certainly m error, as I have taken the latter species in copula,. 

 In the present species the sexes have not been thus definitely 

 ascertained, but, despite its striking difference, I can have but 

 little doubt that the $ here desciibed is that of hrevicollis. 



This insect has a much wider range than any other in the genus. 

 The Transvaal record is based on a single 5 i^ the South African 

 Museum. In the British Museum there is a specimen labelled 

 " Angola," but the locality seems doubtful. 



10. SCIOBTUS BISTRiaiCOLLIS Boh. 



S. histrigicollis Boh. op. cit. vii. 1, p. 202 (1843). 



Long. S 4-5f , ? 5i-6f ; lat. S 2f-3, $ 3-34 mm. 



Head very transverse, coriaceous, with thin pale setiform scaling ; 

 forehead with a shallow central impression ; eyes rather prominent. 

 Rostrum longer than broad, arcuate or subangulate at base, sides 

 sinuate, gense angularly produced in both sexes, but much longer 

 and sharper in the S ; upper sui-face plane, bicarinate, the carinfe 

 gently sinuate, the central carina absent or obsolescent, scaling 

 and ]3unctuation as on the head. Antennce long and moderately 

 slender, piceous, with fine grey pubescence ; scape subcompressed, 

 strongly curved, gradually clavate, funicle with third joint longer 

 than first, subterminal joints elongate. Frothorax rather broader 

 than long in the c? , more transverse in the $ , the base arcuate, 

 apex narrower and truncate, broadest at base, the sides rounded 

 near apex in the J , sublinear and more oblique in the $ ; tipper 

 surface slightly convex, evenly set with small rounded granules, 

 with a distinct curved lateral impression and occasionally with a 

 faint central impressed line ; colour piceous, granules bare, the 

 intei-stices with fine grey or yellowish pubescence, which is denser 

 along the median line, and there is a broad lateral band of dense 

 whitish scales. Elytra ovate in the cJ , much broader and pyriform 

 in the $ , jointly emarginate at base, the sides moderately rounded 

 and broadest alDout middle in the c5~ , but strongly rounded and 

 broadest much behind middle in the $ ; upper surface convex in 

 the 5 , subdepressed in the (S , with distinct strife containing rows 

 of punctures separated by granules (in the $ the fifth stria is 

 usually deeper than the others) ; the intervals slightly convex, 

 smooth and impunctate anteriorly, but more or less strongly 

 granulate on the declivity ; colour piceous, with fine grey depressed 

 pubescence and patches of dense white or yellowish scaling dis- 

 posed as follows : a small, quadrate patch round the scutellum, a 

 broad, very irregular band along the inflexed margins, a narrower, 



