1907.] - Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 427 



DlSCOPELTIS VIDUA, Klug, 



Monatsb. Berl. Akad., 1855, p. 660. 

 Peter's Eeis., 1862, p. 264, pi. 15, fig. 9. 

 holubi, Schoch., Mith. Schw. Ent. Ges., x., 1897, p. 51. 



Black, covered on the upper side with an opaque tomentum ; 

 prothorax with a very broad lateral white patch reaching from the 

 apex to a short distance from the base, and extending to about one- 

 third of the width, in the very centre of the apex of the base 

 is a small white dot, and the scutellum bears a long white patch ; 

 each elytron has three white lateral patches abutting on the suture, 

 the first one, set at the lateral sinuation, is small, the median one is 

 the largest of the three, and reaches from the outer margin to the 

 first dorsal costuie, the third surrounds the hind part of the posterior 

 callus ; pygidium with two large round white patches. Head and 

 clypeus closely punctulate, the punctures broader in the frontal 

 part ; prothorax moderately closely punctate, the punctures quite 

 invisible under the white tomentose patches, and only slightly so 

 under the black tomentum ; scutellum impunctate ; elytra deeply 

 sinuate laterally, and only moderately attenuated behind, the first 

 and second costules are distinct only from the median part of the 

 disk to the apex where the two intervals have two series of some- 

 what cicatricose punctures which disappear altogether in the 

 anterior part of the first interval, the humeral and the deflexed parts 

 are sparingly punctate ; propygidium partly uncovered, pygidium 

 slightly slanting, the former aciculate, the latter punctate ; under side 

 shiny, sides of abdomen punctate, the second, third, and fourth 

 penultimate segments have a lateral white patch much larger on the 

 third than on the other two, but occasionally these patches are 

 missing altogether, the sides of the metasternum are coated with 

 white ; legs cicatricose-punctate, inner part of femora and tibiae 

 briefly pubescent. 



Length 10J-11 mm. ; width 5J-6 mm. 



Hab. Bechuanaland ; Transvaal (Lydenburg, Waterberg) ; 

 Northern Damaraland; Southern Ehodesia (Victoria Falls). 



I have seen examples from the Waterberg District of the Trans- 

 vaal in which the head, the median part of the thorax, and the 

 pygidum are reddish, thus approximating D. tricolor, Burm., of 

 which D. vidua may prove to be merely a melanic variety. These 

 Waterberg examples were taken with the normally coloured type 

 form, i.e., D. viduata. 



