1907.] Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 545 



Length 9-10 mm. ; width 4^-5 mm. 



Hab. Natal (Maritzburg, Newcastle), Transvaal (Pretoria, Lyden- 

 burg), Orange Eiver Colony (Vredeford). 



SCAPTOBIUS ACICULATUS, Sch., 



Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1844, p. 420 ; 

 Westw., Thesaur. Entomol., p. 53, pi. x., fig. 10. 



" Black, prothorax transverse, sides rounded, deeply incised on 

 each side behind ; elytra aciculate, obsoletely bi-costate. Very 

 much like S. capensis in size and sculpture, and with the thorax 

 similarly shaped, but distinct, however, owing to the shorter, 

 aciculate and weakly bi-costate elytra. Body completely black, 

 sparingly and briefly punctate, clypeus disconnected from the 

 frontal part by a transverse keel. Thorax transverse, with the 

 sides strongly rounded, deeply emarginate in front with the anterior 

 angles produced, hind ones sharp, disjointed from the posterior 

 margin by a deep incision, very numerously punctate on the upper 

 part, and weakly impressed behind in the centre ; elytra sub- 

 quadrate, aciculate rugose longitudinally, plane, with the suture 

 and two costse weakly raised on each side. Pygidium with a short 

 keel at the apex. Under side of the body and legs black ; all the 

 tarsi 5-jointed in the specimens examined." 



This species is evidently closely allied to S. natalensis, Westw., 

 but I have not yet met with it. From the figure given by West- 

 wood, it would seem to be broader and shorter, and the prothorax 

 is plainly cicatricose punctate instead of granularly shagreened ; the 

 pygidium is made to appear quite as carinate longitudinally in the 

 centre as in S. natalensis, but the description explains that the carina 

 is at the apex, instead of at the base, and there is no transverse 

 clypeal ridge in S. natalensis. 



Length 9 mm. 



Hab. Cape of Good Hope and Port Natal. 



Gen. PLACODIDUS, Pering., 

 Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1890, p. 68. 



Body extremely compressed ; mentum plane, closing completely 

 the buccal part, transverse, almost quadrate but with the basal 

 margin sharply triangular in the centre, labial palpi so small that 

 they are hardly discernible ; maxillae short and somewhat robust, 

 upper lobe with a strongly curved, very long and very sharp ooth, 

 inner lobe with a short but sharp, little incurved tooth and a very 



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