1896.] of the Coleoi:)tera of South Africa. 115 



the posterior one is shorter, and does not unite with the transverse 

 discoidal one. 



Hah. Zambezia (Sahsbury). 



Myrmecoptera foveolata, P6r., 

 Catal., p. 64. 



Having received further specimens of this handsome Myrmecoptera, 

 I am able to give a new description of both sexes ; I had described 

 the species from male examples. 



Dark metallic blue-black on the upper part, cyaneous on the outer 

 sides of prothorax, outer margin of the elytra, and underneath; labrum 

 white in the male, with a basal infuscation broadly infuscated in the 

 centre and laterally in the female ; antennae black, with the four basal 

 joints cyaneous ; head strigose with a brassy sheen ; prothorax cylin- 

 drical, one-third longer than broad, constricted at the base and with 

 the discoidal part hardly raised, plicated transversely, the folds 

 moderately broad but very conspicuous ; elytra elongated in the 

 male, and ending in two sharp, long spines, ampliated past the 

 middle in the female, in which the apical spines are very short but 

 sharp, deeply and broadly pitted from base to apex, the punctures in 

 the posterior part a little narrower than in the anterior, and a dis- 

 coidal series of small brassy alveolae reaching on each side from the 

 base to slightly past the middle ; the male has a supra-marginal 

 humeral white band, a small median and a posterior one reaching 

 from the posterior angle to the apex ; the humeral line reaches some- 

 times the median one, and I have seen one example in which the 

 median and posterior bands had entirely disappeared, and the 

 humeral one was very short ; in the female both the humeral 

 and median bands have disappeared, only the posterior one is left, 

 and I have even seen an example without any supra-marginal mark- 

 ings whatever. There seems to be as much variation of the white 

 supra-marginal markings in this species as in C Gruti, and this 

 apparently in examples found in the same locality ; these markings 

 in the type (from Damaraland ?) are considerably narrower than 

 in the examples from the Free State, and shorter ; females will 

 hkely be found to have more than one (a postical) white band. 



Hab. Orange Free State (Hoopstad). 



If the shape of the antennae alone was taken into consideration 

 (the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth joints are merely compressed, 

 not subfoliated), M. foveolata, and perhaps M. variolata, Chaud., 

 should be included into the group Cosmema, as also C. clolosa, as I 

 state further on, but the shape of the elytra connects foveolata 

 w4th M. hilunata and others included in my group No. 2, whereas 

 dolosa is more like lepida, gilvipes, &c. 



B 



