1896.] of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 379 



They are generally found in daytime under stones, in moist 

 sandy places. They are nocturnal, but I have seen Scarites Herbsti 

 running at a fair pace in the full glare of a hot day, on the sea- 

 shore at Port Elizabeth, retreating towards the sand dunes bordering 

 the surf -beaten beach. Acanthoscelis is found only on the sea-shore 

 under decomposed seaweed. 



The Scaritid are distributed all over the world, but they seem to 

 be more num^erous in Africa, and in South Africa we have no less 

 than five genera which have not yet been met with elsewhere. 



The similarity of the general facies is very great, and makes the 

 identification of species extremely difficult ; this difficulty is still 

 further enhanced by the difference in size of examples of the same 

 species found in the same locality ; the setigerous punctures on the 

 third interval are seldom symmetrical on each side of the elytra, and 

 some of them are often missing. 



The outer sexual characters are wanting, beyond a more linear 

 shape of the elytra in the male, but in two South African species — 

 Pachyodontus languidus and Scarites nigritus — the characters of the 

 male sex are very conspicuous. 



Synopsis of Genera, 



I. 



Maxillee straight or rounded at the tip. 



Prothorax and elytra cylindrical ; abdominal punctures almost 

 absent Macromorphus. 



Gense developed in a very conspicuous tubercle behind the 

 eyes ; mandibles long, slightly falcate OtojiJitliahnus. 



Maxillae rounded at the tip ; median tooth of the mentum 

 triangular, sharp ; elytra elongato-ovate, hardly broader past the 

 median part than at the base Haplotrachelus. 



n. 



Maxillge ending in a terminal hook. 



Head with two very long sulci, facies of Ilaplotrachehcs . . . . Macrotelus. 



Tooth of the mentum long, obtuse at the tip ; eighth interval 

 of each elytron not overhanging the outer margin Scarites. 



Tooth of the mentum short, blunt ; elytra not soldered, wings 

 underneath ; antennae with the seven ultimate joints monili- 

 form and gradually increasing, the last one the broadest of all . . Distichus. 



Same characters as in Distichus ; elytra soldered Tceniolobus. 



Median tooth of mentum very long, carinate in the middle, 

 obtuse at tip ; mandibles of the male long, straight, falcate at 

 the apex; elytra without intra-marginal carina .. .' Pachyodontus. 



Median tooth of mentum quadrifid ; prothorax and elytra 

 linear, seventh interval much developed at the base Passalidius. 



Mentum with a broad triangular tooth ; outer spines of 

 anterior tibiae very long and distant from one another, with the 

 inner spurs also very long ; intermediate and posterior tibiae 

 considerably thickened and flattened at the tip Acanthoscelis. 



