274 GUY A. K. MARSHALL. 



(J ?. Head obsoletely punctate, the forehead with a short deep median furrow ;. 

 the furrow separating it from the rostrum almost straight ; the eyes strongly convex^ 

 deepest in the middle. Rostrum as long as broad ( $) or sHghtly longer than broad 

 ( cJ), subparallel-sided in its basal half, then gradually dilated to the apex ; the 

 dorsal area alutaceous, shallowly impressed on each side of the sharp median carina, 

 the lateral margins with shallow confluent punctures, very slightly costate, parallel 

 in the basal half, then gradually diverging ; the central carina broadly forked a 

 little beyond the middle, the fork enclosing a large smooth subtriangular impressed 

 area just behind the epistome ; a low longitudinal ridge running from the scrobe 

 to the eye. Antennae with the scape slender, cylindrical, abruptly clavate and 

 clothed with recumbent white setae and narrow setif orm scales ; formula of f unicle : 

 1, 2, (3, 7), (4, 5, 6). Prothorax broader than long, gently rounded at the sides^ 

 broadest at the middle ; the apex truncate or shallowly sinuate, a little narrower 

 than the base, which is feebly marginate ; the dorsum closely set throughout with 

 low contiguous shiny granules, each bearing a puncture containing an erect scale- 

 like seta ; laterally the granules are much reduced and interspersed towards the 

 base with coarse shallow punctures. Elytra without any truncate margin at the 

 base, very broadly ovate in the ?, much narrower in the $^ widest not far from the 

 base, the shoulders broadly rounded, the posterior declivity steep in the (J and almost 

 perpendicular in the $ ; the striae rather shallow^, closely punctate, the punctures 

 as broad as ( ^) or narrower than ( ?) the intervals, each of the latter bearing a 

 single row of short erect flattened setae ; the scales small, narrowly ovate, the 

 palest ones broader. Legs with short pale setae and narrow scales ; all the tibiae 

 denticulate internally in both sexes, the hind pair in the (J broader, with the inner 

 face flattened and smooth throughout and incurved at the apex, the lower edge 

 deeply bisinuate and with an obtuse tooth a little before the middle ; in the ? 

 the hind tibia has a short smooth shallow hollow on the inner face near the apex. 

 Venter of ^ with two widely separated small tubercles near the posterior edge of 

 the 1st segment. 



Length, 6 '5-7 '5 mm. ; breadth, 3-3 '6 mm. 



S. Rhodesia : Salisbury, i. 1895— ii. 1905 (G.A.K.M.—tj^^) ; Umtali, xi. 

 1901 {G.A.K.M.)) Mpudzi R, Umtah dist., xi. 1901 (G.A.KM.)\ Mt. Chirinda, 

 Melsetter dist., ii. 1907 (C. F. M. Swynnerton). 



This common species appears to feed on a number of difl'erent herbaceous plants, 

 and the adults have been observed by Mr. R. W. Jack to do appreciable injury 

 to young maize plants.* 



* The following closely allied species occurs on the coast in the same latitude : — 

 Systates heiranus, sp. n. — Closely resembling S. exapiiis in form and colouring, but 

 smaller and differing in the following particulars : rostrum with the dorsal area slightly 

 convex longitudinally in the basal half, the anterior impressed portion not triangular, 

 but separated off by a low transverse ridge ; no longitudinal ridge behind' the scrobe ; 

 the epistome slightly asymmetrical, the apex of the curve formed by the delimiting 

 carina being a little to the left of the median line, and the carina on the right side rather 

 longer and higher than that on the left ; the prothorax with a very low median costa 

 in the anterior half ; the hind tibiae of 3 smooth and flattened internally, but less 

 incurved at the apex and without any tooth on the lower edge ; the elytra vertically 

 truncate at the base ; 1st ventrite without tubercles in ^. Length, 5-6 mm. ; breadth^ 

 2-4-3 mm. Portuguese East Africa: Beira, x.lOCO — x.l904 {F. A. Sheppafcl) ; 

 3 (^^,7 2 0. 



