DIPLOTAXIDyE — MELOLONTHIDZE. 131 



I at first regarded this species as a variety of Melolontha mcesta of Knoch, but 

 upon comparing it with Germar's description, 3 it appears quite distinct ; for it is 

 not at all bronzed, the nose is not rounded, and the four posterior tarsi, especially 

 the intermediate pair, are longer than the tibiae. It comes very near to Say's 

 M. moesta, 4 (which is quite distinct from Knoch's,) from which it is principally 

 distinguished by its impunctnred scutellum. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Body dark chestnut, more or less grossly punctured above and below. Head thickly punctured 

 with a pair of impressions between the eyes ; nose subemarginate ; antenna? and palpi rufous : pro- 

 thorax thickly punctured, slightly impressed at the four angles : scutellum impunctured : elytra 

 rather paler than the head and prothorax, with nine rows of punctures, viz. a single one at the 

 suture, four arranged in pairs in the disk, and four in the sides ; the interstices between the rows 

 are also irregularly punctured ; the four posterior tarsi, especially the intermediate pair, are longer 

 than the tibia?. 



Obs. In more recently disclosed specimens the body is often entirely pale-chestnut and some- 

 times rufous. 



Family MELOLONTHID^. Melolonthidans. 



LXXI. Genus RHIZOTROGUS. Lat. 



Palpi maxillary four-jointed; first joint minute; second rather long, obconical; third shorter trian- 

 gular ; last thicker and longer than the others, subovate, rather obtuse. 



labial three-jointed ; first slender, obconical ; second thick obconical ; last not thicker than the 



second, obconical. 

 Antenna ten-jointed; scape incrassated; elongato-obconical ; pedicel spherical; three following joints 

 subcylindrical projecting internally towards the apex into an obtuse angle; sixth aijd seventh 

 rather platter-shaped; three last elongated into a linear knob of almost the length of the 

 rest of the antennae. 

 Body oblong, subcylindrical. Head short, inserted, subtrapezoidal ; nose distinct, separated by 

 a wavy line, transverse, anteriorly rounded, emarginate with a reflexed margin : prothorax transverse, 

 curved, behind and at the sides obtusangular with angles rounded : scutellum subtriangular, vertex 

 rounded : elytra with two obsolete abbreviated ridges : anus uncovered ; podex large : breast very 

 hairy : location of legs '" ; spurs 1,2, 2 ; tarsi long, filiform : claws bifid, inner division divaricated 

 and dentiform. 



3 Insect Spec. Nov. i, 122, 208. * Journ Acad. Philad. v, 197, 3. 



S 2 



