I 



1904.] Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 



than the clypeus, plane ; antennae 10-jointed in both sexes, the 

 club joints varying in number from 8 to 4, always smaller 

 and more ovate in the female than in the male ; prothorax nearly 

 straight laterally from the median part to the basal angle which is 

 distinct although somewhat rounded, deeply bi-sinuate in the anterior 

 part the angles of which are sharp and projecting ; elytra elongated, 

 slightly ampliated laterally from the third part of the length but 

 only slightly sinuate there, not much convex (except the females 

 of C. cajfrina and C. tumida), rounded behind and covering the 

 greatest part of the propygidium ; pygidium convex, sub-vertical, 

 not drawn inwards, nor as broad as the penultimate abdominal 

 segment, these segments are convex, but although the suture is 

 very plain they are not retractible ; pectus moderately densely 

 hairy ; legs moderately long, anterior tibiae uni- or bi-dentate out- 

 wardly, and having a very long inner spur, posterior ones with a< 

 plain oblique ridge, hind femora not very robust, tarsi moderately 

 long, slender, each claw having underneath a membranous, con- 

 spicuous quadrate lobe which extends from the base to the median 

 part, and is vertically truncate there, the anterior part of the claw is 

 slender and very abruptly curved. 



As stated in the diagnosis of this genus, the species can be divided 

 into two groups according to the shape of the clypeus which is incised 

 laterally or not, but this character has not a great generic im- 

 portance, occurring as it does in species closely allied in general 

 form as well as in others the general facies or even size of which 

 differ somewhat considerably. An attempt has been made by Herr 

 Brenske to split the genus mainly according to the number of joints 

 composing the club of the male, and occasionally also of the female. 

 This character is so much more fictitious that the joints of the 

 pedicel abutting on to the club are always compressed, aculeate 

 and laminate with a tendency to form an additional joint, even 

 in several cases the inner joint of the club is only one-quarter of 

 the length of the one following, and this same joint varies in length 

 according to species ; this goes far to prove that a specific character 

 is thus made to serve as a generic one. I attach much more 

 importance to the disappearance of an antennal joint than to the 

 increase or decrease in length of one of the club joints ; but even the 

 distinctive value of the presence or absence of one or more joints in 

 the antennae is somewhat illusory when we find that in genera very 

 closely allied to Gamenta the male has a 10-jointed antenna and the 

 female a 9-jointed one, and again in the male of a species belonging 

 to a genus or sub-genus which but for this character could not be 

 separated at all from Gamenta, the antennae are 9-jointed. 



