320 Transactions South African Philosophical Society, [vol. xiii. 



outer margin a series of black bristles ; scutellum closely scabrose 

 punctate ; elytra very slightly costate and not distinctly seriate 

 punctate, plane, a little attenuated behind in the male, not in the 

 female ; pygidium glabrous, closely punctulate, black or reddish in 

 the female, but having in the male along the base two broad, trans- 

 verse, white bands, divided by a narrow interval ; abdomen and legs 

 glabrous, shiny, sparsely punctate ; pectus sparsely clothed with a 

 light fulvous pubescence. 



Length 11 mm. ; width 6 mm. 



Hab. Cape Colony (Humansdorp). Appears in March, and the 

 Eev. J. A. O'Neil considers it to be termitobious. 



XIPHOSCELIDUS, n. gen. 



Mentum ovate, ligular part narrowed, the cavities for the insertion 

 of the palpi almost contiguous at the apex, last joint of labial palpi 

 thick, twice and a half as long as broad, slightly attenuate at tip ; 

 maxillae short, feeble, upper lobe, or galea, very small, oblong, and 

 bearing a few setose hairs at tip ; maxillary palps long, the apical 

 one sub-fusiform outwardly, blunt at tip ; clypeus shorter than the 

 head, slightly narrower at the base than at the apex, where it is only 

 slightly sinuate with the angles slightly rounded, yet distinct, in both 

 sexes, canthus of the eyes very thick and long ; antennal club longer 

 than the pedicel in both sexes, but especially so in the male ; prothorax 

 diagonally ampliated laterally from the apex to a third of the length, 

 straight thence to the strongly arcuate base the angles of which are 

 rounded ; scutellum cordiform ; elytra elongate, plane, not sinuate 

 laterally, and narrower at apex than at base in the $ , slightly 

 sinuate and of equal width at both ends in the $ ; propygidium 

 partly uncovered in both sexes, and partly overhanging the pygidium 

 which is vertical in the $ and sub-horizontal in the female ; abdo- 

 men compressed in the male, and with the hind femora very robust 

 in both sexes, but especially so in the male ; anterior tibiae tri-dentate 

 in both sexes, upper inner angle produced inwardly in the $ into 

 a very long, strongly mucronate broad process which has absorbed 

 the upper spur ; in the $ the shape is normal, and both spurs 

 are blunt at tip ; the intermediate tibiae have only a faint trace 

 of a tooth on the upper edge, but none on the hind ones in 

 either sex. 



The singular species on which the genus is founded is probably 

 crepuscular. It is found at a certain depth in the heaps of excrements 

 of ancient date, that have been heaped outside the galleries by the 

 white ants of the genus Hodotermes, 



