■508 Transactions South African Philosophical Society, [vo:.. xii. 



reflexed at the tip, it is fringed inwardly with dense fulvous hairs, 

 and is occasionally divided from the frontal part by a more or less 

 distinct, carinate suture ; the mandibles are obtusely tri-dentate or 

 bi-dentate, sharply uni-dentate, or rounded, in the latter case they 

 are very concave and wider than the clypeus, the genge are never 

 very much developed, and the eyes are divided by the canthus of 

 the gense ; the antennae are ten- jointed (in all the South African 

 species), the club is sometimes reniform, but in one case {Homoeo- 

 morphus) very elongate and lamellate in the male ; the maxillae are 

 sharply pluri-dentate inwardly, the teeth being in most cases opposite 

 one another, more or less connate at base, but in some genera 

 (Pychno schema; Oryctes) they are not dentate, and are even reduced 

 to a very small pubescent lobe in the first-named genus ; the head 

 and prothorax in ih.Q majority of cases bear horns or tubercles, 

 and are excavated in the male ; the elytra are either convex, mode- 

 rately convex, or almost plane, and they have a basal, epipleural 

 fold, they are not deeply striate, the striae being geminate, and 

 most apparent in the dorsal part only ; the propygidium is very 

 often provided with transverse, more or less fine striae or ridges, 

 serving as stridulating organs, but although in some species these 

 are almost invisible, yet a certain amount of rasping noise can be 

 produced by the friction of the outer edge of the elytra against the 

 scabrose sides of the dorsal part of the ventral segments ; the pygidium 

 is usually convex, and the more convex it is, the more constricted is 

 the abdomen in the male, and the last segment in this sex is always 

 shorter than the penultimate one ; the anterior tibiae are strongly 

 tri-dentate outwardly, and occasionally have intermediate serrate 

 teeth, they are very obliquely truncate inwardly, and the inner spur 

 is long and sharp ; the four posterior ones are robust, sometimes 

 very broadly dilated (Temjiorhynchits), usually transversely bi-carinate 

 obliquely on the upper part, but these carinae are sometimes developed 

 into two strong teeth, and the inner or outer part is dentate, the apex is 

 semicircular, and stiffly bristly or ciliate or not, or tri-dentate, almost 

 digitate, on the upper side ; the basal joint of the posterior tarsi is 

 triangular, and often developed into a long spinose process, and the 

 onychium is greatly developed, bi-setose or penicillate, and in some 

 genera, Bhizoplatus , &c., it is as long as the claws. 



These insects are of sluggish gait when met with in the daylight, 

 but they are mostly nocturnal or crepuscular, and are often attracted 

 in numbers by electric lights. 



Some of them are now known to live on the roots of plants, and 

 prove somewhat injurious to the farmer (HeteronycJuis, Pentodon 

 toschema) ; others are found buried in the wet sand on the banks of 



