1904.] Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 117 



genus is the third joint plainly longer than the fourth (Clitopa), the 

 club itself is either laminate, parallel, or spatuliform in the male, and 

 ovate or ovato-ovate in the female ; pygidium either vertical, sloping 

 slightly backwards, or strongly drawn forwards ; abdominal segments 

 plainly not soldered together but in many species provided between 

 the two ultimate segments with a distensible membrane, which 

 would seem to imply that the other segments are only partially 

 free ; * anterior tibiae bi- or tri-dentate, and with or without an inner 

 spur, hind ones triangularly dilated towards the apex, spurs long, 

 sub-contiguous, either sharp in the male or compressed and broadly 

 dilated in the female, tarsi moderately long, or long, occasionally 

 eiliate. 



With the exception of Clitopa pvacalva, little is known of the 

 habits of the South African species. In the case of the former, how- 

 ever, they are those of certain Algerian species of Rhizotrogus, the 

 females are wingless, the eyes considerably reduced, and they do 

 not seem to leave the ground ; the eyes are, however, not much 

 inferior in size in the two females of JEgostetha and Macrophylla 

 which I have seen, nor are they without wings. I suspect that 

 several species will, however, prove to have apterous females. 



This Tribe is represented in South Africa by forty-eight species 

 representing twenty-four genera, which, with the exception of one 

 (Clitopa), seems restricted to the South African area, but five kindred 

 genera, including each one species, are recorded from Sansibar and 

 British and German East Africa. I expect, however, that this 

 number will be considerably increased. On the whole, the South 

 African genera and species are fairly homogeneous, and merge 

 insensibly into one another, in spite of the melolonthidous appear- 

 ance of JEgostetha, Macrophylla, or Onochceta. Lacordaire founded 

 for the reception of these genera a Sub-Tribe of Melolonthince, the 

 Macrophy Hides, thus separating them from his Sub-Tribe Pachy- 

 podides, and associating them with Sparrmannia and Sebaris. He is 

 evidently in error, because not only the species of these two genera 

 have maxillae very strongly dentate inwardly ; but the abdominal 

 segments are very plainly fused together, and not " non soudes 

 ensemble," as Lacordaire states, also because the maxillae of 

 JEgostetha, Macrophylla, &c, cannot be said to have a dentate 

 external lobe. Sparrmannia and Sebaris belong to the Melolonthini, 

 but form a distinct link with the South African Pachypodini, of 

 which they have the livery, just as JEgostetha, which, except for its 

 livery, so closely resemble in general facies and shape of clypeus 



* This membrane is also found in the genus Schizonycha and allied forms of 

 Melolonthince, in which the segments are quite fused. 



