1907.] Catalogue of the Colcoptera of South Africa. 315 



anterior tibiae strongly tri-dentate outwardly ; and hind tibiae 

 pluri-spinose on the upper side, tarsi hardly longer than the 

 tibiae. 



This African genus is represented by three species. The South 

 African one has a wide range, reaching Mombassa in British East 

 Africa. 



The dried specimens have a most powerful, unpleasant smell. 

 Mr. G. A. K. Marshall states that his only record of this species is 

 "found on dead wood," but that he believes it will prove to be 

 termitophilous. 



Myodekma rufa, Ch. Waterh., 

 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xv., 1885, p. 379. 



Head, prothorax, elytra and abdomen brick-red, moderately shiny, 

 edge of clypeus, breast and legs black, upper and under sides clothed 

 with a very dense, short, yellowish pubescence forming almost 

 a pile ; antennae red ; clypeus produced triangularly in the anterior 

 part in the male and with the two anterior angles more rounded 

 than in the female in which the anterior part is bi-sinuate on each 

 side of the median elevation, and the edge of the clypeus is produced 

 into a little crest above the ocular canthus ; the surface of the head, 

 as well as that of the prothorax, is covered with contiguous, small 

 cicatricose punctures ; the prothorax is a little wider than long, 

 somewhat convex, gradually ampliated and rounded laterally in the 

 centre, and has an impressed longitudinal median line, sometimes, 

 however, difficult to trace ; the red scutellum is narrowly edged with 

 black ; the elytra, which are punctured somewhat as the prothorax, 

 have on each side five rounded costse including the suture ; the 

 pygidium, which is slightly more slanting in the female than in 

 the male, is also finely punctate, and as pubescent as the elytra ; the 

 abdomen is finely punctulate, like the pectus. 



Kolbe has described under the name of M. gestroi a species 

 which, judging from his description, differs mainly from M. rufa in 

 being larger and in the pubescence of the prothorax and elytra being 

 longer. I have seen such examples from Southern Ehodesia, but 

 I cannot consider them as a different species as I have seen inter- 

 mediate forms between them and M. rufa, of which I have a co-type 

 given me by C. Waterhouse. 



Length 12-17 mm. ; width 7-9J mm. 



Hab. Natal (Zululand), Transvaal (Pietersburg, Zoutpansberg, 

 Lydenburg), Southern Ehodesia (Bulawayo, Sebakwe), British East 

 Africa (Mombassa). 



