1904.] Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 41 



Gen. TKOCHALUS, Cast., 



Mag. Zool., Col. ix., 1832, pi. 44. 



Mentum elongate, cordiform from the constricted lateral part to 

 the very narrow base, convex, and hairy, fused with the depressed 

 ligular part the outer angles of which are rounded and the anterior 

 part emarginate, labial palpi short; maxillae robust, straight, provided 

 inwardly with three or four sharp teeth, last joint of labial palpi 

 sub-cylindrical ; clypeus longer than the frontal part, mostly always 

 very strongly narrowed laterally in the anterior, the constriction 

 being edged by the strongly reflexed lateral margin which is strongly 

 sinuate and often aculeate below the genae. This margin is either 

 normal, i.e., it is continued as the edge of the outer anterior angles 

 (T. ferrugineus) or disappears before reaching the very strongly 

 reflexed anterior part (T. modestus), or again is produced diagonally 

 across the anterior part and reaches there the anterior margin either 

 in the centre (T. damarus) or at a short distance from it (T. badius) ; 

 whenever this upper lateral margin is diagonal, the lower margin of 

 the clypeus becomes more visible, the anterior margin is always 

 strongly reflexed, and either sharply or bluntly tri-dentate, or not 

 even aculeate in the centre, and the median tooth is never prolonged 

 into a longitudinal keel dividing the not very hollowed anterior part 

 into two as in the genus Ablaberoides, but many species have a 

 longitudinal median keel, sometimes even very conspicuous, which, 

 however, does not reach either the base of the median anterior tooth, 

 or the sharp transverse carina which divides the clypeus from the. 

 frontal part ; the latter bears in some species (T. chloris, T. vagus, 

 &c.) a transverse groove sometimes more shallow in the female than 

 in the male, equi-distant from the frontal keel and the base and 

 running parallel to it; antennae 11-jointed, club 3-jointed, as long as 

 or longer in the male than the pedicel ; prothorax short, convex,, 

 ampliated laterally from the anterior to the basal angle ; scutellum 

 long, sharply acuminate ; elytra sub-spherical, ovate or elongato- 

 ovate, mostly striate in the dorsal part only ; anterior tibiae bi- or 

 tri-dentate outwardly, the trochanters of the anterior pair broadly 

 triangularly dilated, hind femora broad, posterior tibiae broadly 

 dilated, shorter than the femur, having one distinct and another 

 partly obliterated transverse chevron-like ridges, inner margin stiffly 

 bristly ; anterior tarsi somewhat short, posterior ones longer, hind 

 spurs of the latter longer than the basal joint ; claws symmetrically 

 cleft underneath; pygidium slightly convex, hind coxae very slanting 

 and narrow at the base. 



