The Car (ibid genus Pheropsophus. 199 



P. marginatus, Dej., seems to be the representative of a 

 group of very nearly related species occurring in West Africa, 

 which have not all been closely associated by Chaudoir. 

 Of several of these I have been able to compare con- 

 siderable series, in which the differences although very slight 

 are remarkably constant. To enable these to be readily 

 separated I have given the chief distinctive characters in 

 a tabular form. All these species are approximately alike 

 in form, size and elytral marking, and have the yellow 

 apical border more or less sharply defined. 



A. Thorax immaculate. 



(a.) Apical border of elytra straight : scut- 



ellum black parallelus, Dej. 



(b.) Apical border of elytra bisinuate : 



scutellum yellow bifasciatus, Chaud. 



(c.) Apical border of elytra incurved : 



scutellum and elytra adjoining yellow Beauvoisi, Dej. 



B. Thorax marked with black. 



(a.) Apical border of elytra bisinuate . . marginatus, Dej. 

 (b.) „ „ „ straight: fascia 



narrow. 



1. Head pale, black spotted .... congoensis, Arrow. 



2. Head darker behind, not spotted . . recticollis, Arrow. 



Although Chaudoir has himself regarded his P. bifas- 

 ciatus (" bisulcahcs " in Gemminger's Catalogue) as a 

 variety of P. parallelus, the differences are quite constant 

 in a good series which I have examined, and I therefore 

 regard it as specifically distinct. The correctness of the 

 identification of P. marginatus, Dej., with Mr. Andrew 

 Murray's specimens from Old Calabar (now in the British 

 Museum) is confirmed by a specimen from Asaba, in the 

 district from which M. Dejean's type is said to have been 

 brought. This specimen exactly agrees with Murray's 

 examples and with others brought from Old Calabar by 

 Miss Kingsley in 1894. The species differs from those 

 following, in addition to the characters mentioned in the 

 above table, by the black markings upon the pronotum 

 which are not definitely limited interiorly and do not 

 reach the lateral borders. There is usually an anterior 

 mark in the form of a triangle of which the base is not 

 broader than the sides. The spot upon the vertex, as in 

 the following species, is sometimes quite absent. 



