1907.] Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 543 



SCAPTOBIUS PARRIANUS, Westw., 



Trans. Entom. Soc, Lond., 1879, p. 201, pi. 3, fig. 3. 



"Sub-elongate and narrow, chestnut piceous, clothed with very 

 short luteous hairs ; head with a short, little raised keel between the 

 eyes ; prothorax punctate, impressed and striolate longitudinally in 

 the centre, the sides not serrate, and the posterior angles produced 

 backwards ; elytra not tuberculate, each one provided with two 

 distinct, punctate strias ; epimera with luteous setose hairs ; anterior 

 tibiae broad, strongly 3-dentate, tarsi 4-articulate. 



This species differs from S. capensis as well as from S. pentarthrius 

 and S. caffer, in wanting the tubercles on the elytra. S. pentarthrius, 

 moreover, has 5 -jointed tarsi, and S. caffer a very different shaped 

 prothorax. From S. aciculatus and S. natalensis it differs in its 

 more elongate and narrow form with the costae of the elytra more 

 strongly marked, the anterior tibiae much broader and more strongly 

 tri-dentate, the central impression of the middle of the pronotum 

 more distinct, the epimera luteo setose, and the head with a slight 

 elongate tubercle between the eyes. The mentum is wider than 

 long, with the front margin nearly straight, the sides rounded, the 

 base terminating in a central triangular flat tooth and the middle 

 of the disk with a deep longitudinal impression. The disk of the 

 pronotum is finely puncliured, the hind part marked with fine 

 parallel strigae. The abdomen is convex, with a transverse deep 

 impression at the base of the penultimate segment. 



Length 11^ mm. 



Hab. Transvaal." 



I have not met with this species. In Westwood's figure the 

 apical outer tooth of the anterior tibiae is very sharp. 



SCAPTOBIUS PENTARTHRIUS, Westw., 



Thesaur. Entomol., p. 52, pi. x., fig. 7. 



This species might be easily mistaken for S. capensis, but the 

 anterior tarsi are normally 5-jointed, and I have ascertained that 

 this character occurs in both the sexes. It reaches a slightly greater 

 size than S. capensis ; the head, clypeus, and prothorax have the 

 same shape, but they are not granulate, and the longitudinally 

 strigillate surface of the prothorax is covered, as also the sub- 

 granulose punctate frontal part of the head with a thick tomentum 

 and short luteous hairs ; the sculpture of the elytra is identical in 

 both species, and the pygidium also simple. 



Length 10-12 mm. ; width 5J- mm. 



Hab. Southern Ehodesia (Salisbury). 



