1896.] of the Coleoptera of South Africa, 185 



to the suture to near the outer margin and produced there in a 

 narrow band that reaches the postical outer angle only ; there are 

 also a series of deep impressions in the interval above the outer 

 margin ; under side pale yellow, with the lateral sides of the abdomen 

 occasionally infuscate. Length 5|— 7 mm. ; width 2|~3 mm. 

 Hab. Cape Colony (Cape Town), Mozambique (Eikatla.) 



Beachinus placidus. 



Head, prothorax, palpi, and legs pale yellow ; antennae with the 

 two basal joints reddish, the others black ; head and prothorax finely 

 punctulate ; elytra subparallel, faintly costate, very briefly pubes- 

 cent, black with the scutellum red, and on each side a very narrow 

 reddish line in the anterior part of the suture, an elongated sub- 

 quadrate patch reaching almost from the shoulder to about one- 

 fourth of the length, and a transverse patch of the same colour above 

 the apical part — this patch, a slightly sinuated one, reaches nearer 

 to the outer margin than to the suture ; the outer margin is also 

 slightly and narrowly diffused with yellow ; under side pale yellow ; 

 slightly fuscous on the abdominal sides. Length 5 mm. ; width 2 mm. 



Closely allied to B. vittaticoUis, from which it differs in not having 

 any median black patch on the head and prothorax ; the circa- 

 scutellary patch on the elytra is reduced to a narrow line along the 

 basal part of the suture, the small dorsal dot parallel to the lateral, 

 anterior band is missing, and the postical patch is not so sinuated, 

 nor does it reach so near to the suture, and the interval next to the 

 outer margin has no punctures. 



Hab^ Damaraland. 



Gen. STYPHEOMEEUS, Chaud., 

 Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg., vol. xix., 1876, p. 88. 



Mentum with a median moderately prominent tooth ; last joint 

 of the maxillary fusiform, that of the labial truncate ; antennae with 

 the joints more closely set together than in Brachinus ; the other 

 characters as in that genus. 



The importance of the characters which have led De Chaudoir 

 to create this genus is very slight ; had he been able to examine 

 Brachinus vittaticoUis, placidus, and fallax, he would have found 

 most, if not all, the characteristics of S. equestris, a species which 

 occurs also in South Africa. 



Stypheomeeus equesteis, Dej., 

 Spec. Col., v., p. 421. 

 S. rusticorum, Per., Trans. S. Afric. Phil. Soc, vol. iv., 1888, p. 75. 

 Yellowish red, pubescent ; antennae with the four basal joints 



