1S90.I 325 



ON A NEW SPECIES OP TOMODERUS FROM JAPAN. 

 BY G. C. CHAMPION, F.Z.S. 



TOMOBERUS CLAVIPES, Sp. n. 

 Elongate, convex, broad, pitchy-black, the head narrowly in front and the pro- 

 thorax dark castaneous ; the upper surface shinino;, and somewhat thickly clothed 

 with moderately long, decumbent, brownish pubescence. Head broad, transverse, 

 very minutely and very sparsely punctured, smooth on the disc, the eyes not promi- 

 nent ; antennas entirely testaceous, stout, joints 8 — 10 wider than those preceding, 

 transverse (9 and 10 very strongly so), 11 longer than 10, acuminate; prolhorax 

 longer than broad, a little narrower than the liead, strongly constricted at the sides 

 behind the middle, the transverse groove separating the anterior and posterior por- 

 tions extremely shallow on the middle of the disc, but very deep at the sides, the 

 anterior portion witliout trace of a median groove, the surface punctured like that 

 of the head ; elytra moderately long, about three times as wide as the prothorax, 

 regularly ovate, a little flattened on the basal portion of the disc, closely, finely, 

 and confusedly punctured throughout, the humeri completely effaced, the apices 

 rounded ; legs entirely testaceous, stout, the femora very strongly clavate ; beneath 

 ferruginous, closely and finely punctured ; anterior tibise a little dilated within in 

 their outer half, and the fifth ventral segment truncate, in the male ; body apterous. 



Length Sf, breadth Ij mm. 

 Hah. : Japan, Osaka. 



Two examples, captured by Mr. G. Lewis on July 8th, 1881. 

 This fine species differs from all the other members of the genua 

 known to me in having the characteristic transverse groove of the 

 thorax very shallow on the middle of the disc ; the femora are very 

 strongly clavate ; the elytra are regularly ovate, without trace of 

 humeri ; the head and thorax are almost smooth, and the elytra are 

 finely but very distinctly punctured from the base to the apex. It 

 will probably have eventually to be separated from Tomoderus — if 

 Formiconius is to be retained as distinct from Anthicus (T. clavipes 

 differing in the same way from the species referred to the genus by 

 its author, as does Fori?iicomus from Antliicus) ; but as Reitter and 

 others include species w-ith similarly formed elytra {e. g., T. scydmoB- 

 noides, Reitt.) in the genus, I place it here for the present. 



In T. scydmcenoides (from the Caucasus) the elytra are absolutely 

 soldered together, and the body is, of course, apterous. In the 

 European T. compressicollis, Motsch., and in all the American species 



1 have examined, the elytra have more or less prominent humeri and 

 the body is winged. Compared with Holcopijge (cf., ante p. 292), T. 

 clavipes differs by its simple terminal dorsal segment, relatively shorter 

 first ventral segment (only a little longer in the middle than segments 



2 and 3 united), long metasternum, and much less inflated elytra; 



V. E 



