1900.] Catalogue of tJie Coleoj^tera of South Africa. 11 



in shape ; the vertical horn on the base of the mandibles is occasion- 

 ally smaller. 



Length 13-19 mm. ; width 5-6 mm. 



Hah. Natal (Durban), Transvaal (Rustenbm^g). 



Burrows in dead wood. 



NiGiDius VALiDus, n. spec. 

 Plate XXXI., fig. 3. 



Black, shining ; base of mandibles with a vertical horn, bent at a 

 moderately sharp angle inwardly at tip and very rugose inwardly ; 

 head very rugose, deeply excavate in front and having two transverse 

 smooth areolets in front and a transverse smooth space in the basal 

 part ; it is obliquely angular on each side of the anterior part, the 

 gense are bluntly angular at the apex a little below the angular part 

 of the anterior margin, very deeply excavated in front of the eyes 

 which are entirely imbedded in the canthus at some distance from the 

 outer margin, and strongly directed outwards and backwards, quite 

 truncate at the base and projecting nearly as far as the anterior angle 

 of the prothorax w^hich is sub-parallel laterally, emarginate for a very 

 short distance from the anterior angle which is a little sloping, obliquely 

 attenuate behind, impressed transversely in front, having there a 

 median, sharp carina ; it is moderately plane on the disk which has 

 a median, shallow, deeply punctate furrow ; the anterior bi-sinuate 

 impressed transverse part is very rugose ; the sides of the prothorax 

 are deeply, closely, and somewhat irregul-arly punctured, and the 

 median part of the disk is smooth, or feebly aciculate ; on each side of 

 the anterior part there is a distinct supra-lateral fossa, and a rounded, 

 very shallow impression behind at a short distance from the base 

 and equi-distant from the outer margin and the median furrow ; in 

 the marginal furrow there is also a median longitudinal carina very 

 much shorter than the anterior one which reaches from the anterior 

 margin to nearly the apex of the dorsal furrow ; scutellum punctate ; 

 elytra very sharply carinate, with the carinate part smooth and 

 shining but having on each side of the hollow intervals a distinct 

 series of punctures, smaller, however, than the transverse ones filling 

 the bottom of the intervals ; under side with the exception of the 

 median part of the metasternum closely foveolato-punctate ; pros 

 ternum very briefly and sparsely pubescent ; legs as in N. delegorguei. 



Length 23 mm. ; width 9 mm. 



This species is evidently closely allied to N. divergens, Waterh.^ 

 but, judging from the description only, it is distinguished by the 



