452 



PAUSSID^E. 



Fig. 204. — Pleuropterus 

 taprobancnsis. 



short, dark rufous, with large and prominent eyes, occupying 

 the whole of the sides, but with the temples just visible behind 

 them, vertex uneven and rather strongly punctured; antennae- 

 rufescent, long, and shining; pronotum 

 ferruginous, much broader than long, 

 strongly raised at the margins, which are 

 bluntly angled, and with its greatest 

 breadth just about the middle; the central 

 part is raised and more or less channelled 

 in the centre, and the sides are strongly 

 excavate ; the base is depressed, and the 

 central raised part divides before the tri- 

 angular depression and leads off on either 

 side to the bluntly-produced posterior an- 

 gles ; on each side, just before these angles, 

 there is a small stiff tuft of seta?, which at 

 first sight looks like a tooth ; elytra oblong, 

 parallel-sided, broader than the pronotum, 

 red or yellowish red, with two broad elon- 

 gate patches (one on each side of the suture) near the base, 

 another at each shoulder, variable in extent, and another on each 

 side before the apex, also variable both in size and shape, black ; 

 just behind the base, on the outer sides of the two basal black 

 patches, the surface of each elytron is raised into a curved costa,. 

 the part between these being depressed: the sculpture is extremely 

 fine and there are feeble but distinct traces of raised ridges ; 

 legs rufescent, rather slender, except the femora, which are rather 

 broad and compressed, posterior trochanters large ; underside red. 

 Length 9-10 millim. 

 Ceylon ; Bombay : Kanara. 



According to Gestro this species is closely allied to P. ivester- 

 manni, Westw. (Java), but more shining, with the sculpture of 

 the head plainer, the antennse narrower and more narrowed 

 towards the apex, and the pronotum narrower with the sides less 

 rounded and angled, as above described ; the elytra are broader 

 than the thorax, and the basal costa of the elytra is less abbre- 

 viated ; the colour, moreover, is different, the black being more 

 extended and the reddish colour deeper ; several of these points,, 

 however, appear to be variable. 



220. Pleuropterus cardoni, Gestro. 



Pleuropterus cardoni, Gestro, Ann. Mus. Genova, 1901, p. 822,. 

 fig. 3 ; AVasmann, Notes Leyden Mus. xxv, 1&04, p. 14. 



Pleuropterus westermanni, Wasmann (nec Westwood), Notes Ley- 

 den Mus. xxv, 1904, p. 14, pi. i, fig. 4. 



This species is very closely allied to the preceding, from which 

 it may be known by its smaller size and the somewhat narrowly 

 rounded, but not angular, sides of the pronotum, the greatest 

 breadth being behind the middle and not in the middle as in 



