1896.] of the Coleoj^tera of South Africa. 141 



the more hexagonal form of the prothorax, and also by the absence 

 on the elytra of the series of glittering brassy spots. Length 

 33-36 mm. ; width 13-16 mm. 



Hab. Delagoa Bay (Lourengo - Marquez), Zambezia (Victoria 

 Falls). Gestro records this species from the Galla comitry, in 

 North-E astern Africa. 



Tribe HILETIDES. 

 Gen. HILETUS. 



Mentum broadly incised, concave in the centre ; the two lateral 

 lobes convex ; the median tooth short quadrifid ; ligula very long ; 

 subspatuliform, ciliate, but truncate at the tip ; paraglossse fili- 

 form, detached from the ligula and nearly as long ; ciliate inwardly 

 at the tip ; maxillae in the shape of a broadly concave horny process 

 under the short claw, consisting according to Lacordaire of fused 

 and arched cilise ; last joint of palpi fusiform and acute"; jaws very 

 broad, convex, and deeply serrate ; labrum broader than long, with 

 only one seliger puncture in the angular part of the apex ; head 

 broad, thick; eyes projecting ; antennae inserted under a small process 

 on a line with the base of the mandibles, fractate, the first joint very 

 long and with a groove below the eyes to receive it ; prothorax broad, 

 subquadrate, but a little attenuated behind ; elytra subparallel, a 

 little rounded behind, moderately convex ; legs moderately long ; the 

 three basal joints of the anterior and median tarsi of the male 

 slightly enlarged in the shape of an elongated square, and spongy 

 underneath, those of the female subfiliform, the two spurs on the 

 tibiae terminal ; prosternum produced behind in a long obtusely 

 triangular process fitting in a depression of the mesosternum. 



The insects included in this genus have the general facies of a 

 Pterostichid, but the shape of the antennae is that of a Scaritid ; the 

 shape of the ligula and paraglossaB as well as that of the mandibles 

 is most anomalous ; it is for that reason that Lacordaire in his 

 ' Genera ' has created a special tribe, including only the genus 

 Hiletus, which now contains five species from Senegal, Guinea, 

 Abyssinia, Zanzibar, besides the South African one, and also one 

 from South America (Brazil). 



Hiletus oxygonus, Chaud., 

 Bull. Mosc, 1861, ii., p. 507. 



Black, shining ; head smooth, with two longitudinal parallel 

 grooves on each side ; apical part of the joints of the palpi rufes- 



* Lacordaire says that in the male the ultimate joint is very securiform ; this 

 is not the case in the five examples in my possession, but they might prove to be 

 all females. 



