1900.] Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 



409 



Aphodius (Ammoecius) mimus, n, spec. 



Piceous black with the clypeus, anterior part of prothorax and legs 

 piceous red, shining, glabrous, antennae sub-rufescent ; head covered 

 with very closely set and deep punctures, clypeus very briefly and 

 moderately broadly emarginate with the sides of the emargina- 

 tion angular, oblique laterally, and with the margins reflexed, genae 

 slightly triangular, not prominent, the median part of the clypeus is 

 impressed and equi-distant from the apex and from the intra-ocular 

 ridge which is transverse, arcuate, and distinct ; prothorax short, 

 sub-parallel, somewhat rounded laterally towards the base which is 

 marginate in the middle and not sinuate on each side ; the whole 

 surface is covered with equi-distant, somewhat closely set, deep punc- 

 tures ; scutellum short, impunctate ; elytra slightly gibbose, narrowly 

 striate, but with the punctures somewhat shallow, and the intervals 

 a little costate in the anterior part, but much more distinctly so 

 from the middle to the apex, where they are carinate and impunc- 

 tate ; the striae reach the apex except the fourth, fifth, and eighth ; 

 metasternum normal, abdomen nearly glabrous ; anterior tibiae 

 strongly tri-dentate outwardly and distinctly pluri-serrate above the 

 digits. 



Length 4f mm. ; width 2 mm. 



This species resembles much A, luguhris, but is distinguished by 

 the much less prominent genae, the absence of cephalic tubercle and 

 the less deeply punctured striae, the marginal one of which is not 

 distinctly punctured as far as the suture ; the intervals are distinctly 

 aciculate, and the tibiae are crenulate above the digits. 



Hah. Cape Colony (Hope Town, Kei Eoad). 



Aphodius (Ammoecius) lugubris, Boh., 

 Insect. Caffr., ii., p. 364. 

 A. amhiguus, Boh., Ees. Eugen., 1858, p. 51. 



Size and shape of A. mimus, but the colour is piceous red or ferru- 

 ginous ; the clypeus is dentate on each side of the emargination 

 which is not so deep ; the sculpture of the head and prothorax 

 is similar, and the intervals of the elytra are plane from the base to 

 the posterior rounded part where they are only very slightly convex, 

 .and they are distinctly punctate. 



Length 3^ mm. ; width l±-2 mm. 



Hah. Cape Colony (Eobben Island, Cape Town). 



