HETEROMEKA, MALACODERMATA, ETC. 



87 



28. Mordellistena samoensis, sp. n. (Text-fig. 6). 



Castaneous, covered, with a moderately dense and long rust coloured 

 pubescence. Eyes almost glabrous, long and narrow, the base less than half 

 as long as the lateral margin, and their distance apart about three times the 

 greatest width of one of them. Antennae moderately long, reaching a little 

 beyond the apices of the posterior coxal processes, joints 1 to 3 shorter than 

 the rest, 4 to 10 subequal, somewhat flattened, each about twice as long as its 

 greatest width. Cauda rather stout, a little shorter than posterior tarsus, acute 

 at apex. Posterior tibia stout, its apex rather more than one-third as long as 

 the posterior edge, the latter with 5 or 6 oblique combs subequal in length, 

 not reaching half way across the outer face ; the internal spur more than half 

 as long as the first tarsal joint, the external about half as long as the internal 

 (Text-fig. 6) ; tarsal combs 4.2.2. Long, (cauda excluded) 5 mm. 



The sexes differ but slightly, antennae of a little longer than those of 



Text-fig. 5. — Mordellistena consimilis Text-fig. 6. — Mordellistena samoensis, 



Blair ; posterior leg. sp. n. ; posterior leg. 



Upolu : Apia, xii.1924, 1 example ; Vailima, i., iv.1925, 3 examples : 

 Malololelei, xi.1924, 1 example. 



Tutuila : Fagasa, 9.ix.l923, 1 example (Swezey and Wilder) ; and 

 2 examples (Kellers). 



(Paratypes in Bishop Museum, Honolulu, and in Coll. F. Muir.) 



Very like New Caledonian specimens of what I take to be M. dodoneae 

 Montrouz., but a little larger and darker in colour, pubescence longer and less 

 depressed, with narrower eyes, longer antennae, and stouter posterior tibiae, 

 and with different tibial combs. Also allied to M. rosseola Mars., of Japan, 

 but the latter has the posterior tibiae and tarsi more slender, with the internal 

 tibial spur less than half as long as the first tarsal joint, and is more closely 

 punctate both above and beneath. 



