1904.] Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 183 



Episterna broad or very broad, and on a level with the epimera Leucopholide*. 



A 1 . Labrum transverse. Anterior coxae sub-vertical at apex, 



episterna narrow Diplotaxides. 



Burmeister divided the Melolonthini in two groups ; in the first 

 one he included all the species in which the anterior margin of the 

 prothorax is lined with a narrow membrane and in the second all the 

 species in which this margin is either fringed with dense hairs or 

 completely hairless. Kolbe, however, has very rightly pointed out * 

 that these characters are too variable to be absolutely relied upon, 

 and he has proposed another division based on the size and the plane 

 of the episterna and epimera of the metasternum, a division which I 

 have adopted, although in the genus Berigua it does not apply. 



Group SCHIZONYCHIDES. 



The South African representatives of this group can be divided 

 into two sections ; in the first one, or true Schizonychides, are 

 placed all the genera closely connected with the genus Schizonycha, 

 and which, with very few exceptions (Atys, Suntemnonycha), have 

 the third antennal joint longer than the fourth ; they are cha- 

 racterised also by an arcuate clypeus, seldom straight laterally 

 (Spathoschyza), and not incised or strongly sinuate in the centre of 

 the anterior margin ; this first division is very homogeneous, and is 

 connected with the Tribe Sparrmannini by the genera Berigua and 

 Glyptoglossa, in which the epimera are broader than in the other 

 South African Schizonychides. In Glyptoglossa the basal joints of 

 the anterior tibiae are as spinose inwardly at apex as in the Sparr- 

 mannini, and this character is also found, although in a lesser degree, 

 in some species of Schizonycha. In this first section the generic 

 differences are often small, and consist in the presence or absence of 

 clypeal and frontal sutures or keels, coupled with the number of 

 antennal joints ; the species are so remarkably alike that without an 

 examination of the male's genital organs the identification becomes 

 almost an impossibility; in the second section, Psilonychides, I 

 have placed the genera in which the third antennal joint is not 

 plainly longer than the fourth ; this character also coincides with a 

 more or less porrect clypeus, the angles of which are generally a 

 little rounded laterally and the anterior margin incised or sinuate 

 in front. 



* Beitz. z. Kenntn. der Melolonthiden, Ann. Soc. Ent. d. Belg., vol. 38, 1894. 



