SOME NEW INJURIOUS WEEVILS. 275 



Systates chirindensis, sp. nov. 



cJ $. Dull black, uniformly and thinly clothed with very small grey or light brown 

 scales, sometimes with a greenish reflection ; in the $ only there is a large common 

 triangular denuded dark patch at the top of the declivity with its apex directed 

 backwards. 



Head separated from the rostrum by a straight furrow, impunctate, and with a 

 shallow median furrow that is longer than half the transverse one ; the eyes 

 moderately convex, deepest in the middle. Rostrum a little broader than long, 

 very slightly narrowed from the base to the middle, then gradually widening to 

 the apex ; the dorsal area almost flat, finely alutaceous, parallel- sided to the middle 

 and then dilated, the margins slightly costate and very shallowly punctate, the 

 median carina low and broadly forked beyond the middle, the fork enclosing a 

 shallowly impressed subtriangular smooth bare area ; no costa behind the scrobe. 

 Antennae long and very slender, clothed with sparse fine recumbent setae ; the 

 scape cylindrical, abruptly clavate ; the relative lengths of the joints of the funicle 

 thus : 1, 2, 3 (4, 5), (6, 7). Prothorax somewhat broader than long, moderately 

 rounded at the sides, broadest a little before the middle, truncate at base and 

 apex, the former not marginate and a little broader than the apex ; the dorsum 

 evenly set with low shiny granules, each with a setigerous puncture ; laterally the 

 granules are much reduced. Elytra very narrowly ovate in the cJ, much broader 

 in the $, without any truncate margin at the base, the apices jointly rounded and 

 produced downwards like a beak, especially in the 5 ; the striae shallow and 

 containing punctures that are deep towards the base but diminish much behind ; 

 the intervals broader than the punctures, slightly convex, each with a row of small 

 low setigerous granules, the setae being longer and thinner in the 5, and also dupli- 

 cated on the declivity of interval 1 in that sex. Legs thinly clothed with narrow 

 pale scales, the hind femora with a broad dark band in the middle ; in the (J, the 

 front tibiae slightly bent inwards at two-thirds from the base and denticulate 

 internally, the mid pair also denticulate and the lower edge very strongly curved 

 in the apical half, the hind pair only slightly curved, the inner face broadly flattened 

 and smooth almost to the base, with a single row of granules along its lower edge 

 in the apical half and the upper edge granulate ; in the $, the tibiae only slightly 

 curved, the hind pair with a smooth flat area on the inner face bounded above 

 and below with a row of granules. Venter with ventrite 1 in the ^ very broadly 

 impressed at the base and with two widely separated small conical tubercles on the 

 hind margin. 



Length, 6*4-8 mm. ; breadth, 2 '6-3 "6 mm. 



S. Rhodesia : Mount Chirinda, 4,000 ft., xii. 1901 and x. 1905 {G.A.K.M.). 

 Described from 14 (J (J and 15 ? $. 



From the very f ev>^ species of Systates having granulated elytra, such as S. granosus, 

 Fst., this insect may be distinguished by the absence of the vertically truncate edge 

 at the base of the elytra. 



In 1915, Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton found the adults of this species feeding in 

 numbers on the leaves of coffee bushes on Mt. Chirinda. 



