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



Gen. MELINESTHES, Kraatz, 

 Ent. Monatsbl., xii., 1880, p. 24. 



Mentum broadly scooped laterally for the insertion of the palpi, 

 deeply and broadly emarginate in front ; maxillae robust, inner lobe 

 ending in a long, hamate tooth, upper lobe very small and produced 

 in two sharply hamate teeth ; antennal club slightly longer than the 

 pedicel in the $• , equal in length in the ? ; clypeus simple in both 

 sexes, or with two more or less parallel, porrect horns in the male ; 

 prothorax diagonally ampliated laterally from apex to base, and 

 slightly sinuate past the middle, base slightly slanting and arcuate 

 above the scutellum which is grooved on each side; elytra elongated, 

 narrower at apex than at base ; mesosternum produced into a long, 

 sharp process, curving more or less strongly upwards and slightly 

 pubescent at tip ; anterior tibiae uni- or bi-dentate in the $ , bi- or 

 tri-dentate in the $ ; all the tibiae fringed inwardly with somewhat 

 long hairs. 



Of the 7 species included in this genus one must be removed from 

 it (serripes) ; one falls into synonomy (calvipes), a third can only be 

 regarded as a varietal form (flavipennis), and the differences between 

 two {umbonata, and exilis) are so small, that I feel somewhat diffident 

 in considering them as distinct species ; the seventh occurs in 

 British East Africa. 



Key to the Species. 



A 2 . Clypeus simple in the male. 



B 2 . Frontal part of both sexes pubescent. 



Mesosternal process very long, curved and impunctate . . umbonata. 



Mesosternal process moderately long, closely punctate at base exilis. 



A 1 . Clypeus with two porrect horns in the <? . 



B 1 . Frontal part glabrous in both sexes. 



Clypeal horns of <? diverging, and broadly dilated singly at 



apex algoensis. 



Clypeal horns of c? parallel and with the apical part curved 

 upwards like a hook hamula. 



Melinesthes umbonata, Gor. and Perch., 

 Monogr., p. 141, pi. 22, fig. 1. 



Var. atricollis, Jans., Cist. Entom., iii., 1885, p. 139. 

 Var. vitticollis, Kraatz, Entom. Monatsb., ii., 1880, p. 24. 



Head, with the exception of the apical part of the clypeus, the 

 greatest part of the surface of the prothorax, and the under side 



