88 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



regular sulci on the elytra and their simple even intervals will 

 distinguish it from all its congeners. I have seen only a single 

 specimen. 



27. Byrsops deformis, Boh. 

 Synthocus deformis, Boh., I.e. vi., 2, p. 413 (1842). 

 Byrsops farinosa, Pasc, I.e. p. 332. 



Long. 9J-11 ; lat. 4J-5 mm. 



Colour pale sandy brown, the whole upper surface frosted with 

 whitish scaling. 



Head without oblique carinse and with obsolete punctuation 

 which is hidden by the scaling. Rostrum punctured like the head 

 and with a slight abbreviated central carina, the dorsal margins 

 rounded. Prothorax slightly broader than its dorsal length, the 

 sides strongly rounded, broadest about middle, the ocular lobes 

 somewhat dilated at apex; upper surface convex, without any 

 central furrow or anterior fovese, and with shallow punctuation 

 which is almost entirely concealed by the dense scaling, both 

 dorsally and laterally ; the anterior margin distinctly elevated. 

 Elytra oblongo-ovate, shoulders narrow and oblique, sides mode- 

 rately rounded, broadest about middle, the posterior declivity very 

 abrupt ; upper surface almost plane, with regular rows of shallow 

 punctures on the disk and with shallow punctate sulci on the 

 inflexed margins; intervals 6 with a row of small depressed tubercles 

 which are usually more or less obsolete ; the remaining intervals 

 without tubercles, except for two very large prominences at the 

 top of the declivity which are covered with small conglomerated 

 tubercles and are united to each other by a low transverse elevation. 

 Legs with dense light brown scaling and sparse setae ; posterior 

 tibiae with the upper apical angle forming a sharp recurved 

 tooth ; tarsi comparatively short, the posterior pair with joint 

 1 much longer than 2, the latter being strongly transverse. 



Cape Colony: "Orange Eiver (Ecklon and Zeyher) " — teste 

 Boheman. 



Type in the Stockholm Museum ; type of farinosa in the British 

 Museum. 



An aberrant species, exhibiting an affinity with the genus 

 Synthocus in its shorter tarsi, thicker funicle and less developed 

 rostral lobes. The eight examples (5 Brit. Mus., 2 Stockholm, 

 1 Oxford) I have seen show comparatively little variation. 



