120 



INSECTS OF SAMOA. 



The pubescence is somewhat finer in these specimens than in those taken 

 in Hawaii, but this character is of trifling importance in view of the extreme 

 variability of the species as regards the outline of the prothorax and of the 

 coxal lamina, not to mention coloration and punctuation. 



Generally distributed in Oceania as far north as the Hawaiian Is. 



10a. Simodactylus tasmani Candeze. 

 Elaterides nouveaux, fasc. v, p. 24, 1893. 



Two specimens: Nui, Ellice Is., 21 .ix. 1924, male (?) ; Nukufetau, Ellice 

 Is., 20.ix.1924, male. No examples of this species were collected in Samoa. 



The Nukufetau specimen is lighter brown than usual, but it is distorted 

 and appears to be immature. 



The type of the species was obtained in Fiji. 



Roggeveenia, gen. nov. 



Front convex ; anterior margin carinate. Antennae of moderate length, 

 feebly serrate. Prothorax narrowed anteriorly, longer than wide, subdepressed, 

 narrower than elytra. Sterno-pleural sutures fine, nearly straight, not excavate. 

 Mucro nearly horizontal. Elytra sharply acuminate at apex. Mesosternal 

 cavity sloping, sides flat. Metathorax not carinate. Metasternal coxal lamina 

 only moderately widened inward. Second tarsal joint simple ; dilation of 

 third much reduced, that of the fourth definite but not pronounced. 



Genotype : Roggeveenia buxtoni, sp. n. (Text-figs. 7, 8, 9). 



A Pachyderine with the dilation of the tarsal lobes reduced (Text-fig. 8), 

 and the antennae without a carina on their face ; readily distinguishable from 

 the other genera by its sharply acuminate elytra. The male genitalia (Text- 

 fig. 9) are similar to those of Simodactylus cinnamomeus Boisd., but are not 

 acutely barbed on the lateral lobes. The last abdominal sternite is emarginate 

 at the apex in the female, entire in the male. 



This genus is named in memory of Jacob Eoggeveen, the Dutch navigator, 

 who discovered the Samoan islands in 1721, and was thus the first European 

 to sight the group. 



