1896.] of the Coleo]ptera of South Africa. 441 



SioPELUs VENUSTULus, Bohem., 

 Insect. Caffr., i., p. 202. 



Very dark bottle-green on the upper part, under side black, 

 iridescent ; palpi, legs, and the three basal joints of the antennae 

 fiavescent, the other joints of the antennae deeply infuscate ; head 

 nearly smooth ; prothorax ampliate laterally from the apex to 

 the median part, very slightly narrowed from there, but not sinuated, 

 to the posterior angle which is sharp, finely shagreened all over, 

 slightly impressed behind between the posterior angle and the 

 median longitudinal groove which reaches the base, lateral part 

 with a broad, fiavescent margin ; elytra elongate, subparallel, 

 intervals plane with two series of deep, seriate punctures often 

 coalescing and separated by two narrow parallel lines, and having 

 on each side in the posterior declivity a sinuate pale-yellow transverse 

 patch extending from the fourth to the eighth interval, and a little 

 below it two elongated ones filling respectively the first and second 

 intervals and reaching the apex. In some examples the elongate, 

 coalescing, narrow bands of which the transverse posterior patch 

 consists, are much shorter on the fifth and seventh intervals than 

 on the other two. Length 6^-7 mm. ; width 2-|- mm. 



Hah. Natal (Frere, D'Urban, Escourt), Transvaal (Leydenburg, 

 Pretoria), Zambezia (Salisbury). 



Gen. HAEPALUS, Latreille, 

 Hist. Nat., viii., 1804, p. 325. 



Mentum broadly emarginate with a small median tooth, inner part 

 of the lateral. lobes oblique, sharp at the tip, outer part rounded; ligula 

 long, narrow, disunited from the paraglossse near the tip, emarginate 

 at the apex and bearing a long seta on each side of the emargina- 

 tion ; paraglossae slightly longer than the ligula and twice as broad, 

 slanting a little at the apex ; ultimate joint of maxillary and labial 

 palpi subfusiform and truncate at the apex, the labial one setulose ; 

 mandibles short, arcuate at the tip, the right one with a median 

 inner tooth ; labrum a little broader than long, not emarginate ; 

 head not narrowed behind, eyes moderately projecting ; prothorax 

 broader than long, with the outer sides more or less straight 

 behind from the lateral seta to the posterior angle, seldom con- 

 tracted at base, posterior angles always distinct, although sometimes 

 blunted ; elytra parallel or oblong, always less parallel in the female 

 than in the male, striate, with the intervals slightly convex or 

 plane, always more plane in the female when they are subconvex 

 in the male, and also more opaque in that sex when the elytra 

 are black, or less bright when aeneous or brown with a metallic 



