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The Atoll of Funafuti, Ellice group : its zoology, botany, ethnology and general structure based on collections made by Charles Hedley of the Australian Museum, Sydney, N.S.W.

Family Otioehycides. — Genus Elytrurus, Schonherr. — Elytrurus squamatus, sp. nov

Family Otioehycides.
Genus Elytrurus, Schonherr.
Elytrurus squamatus, sp. nov.

(Plate i., fig. 7.)

Long. 4 mm., lat. 2 mrn.

Eliptic, robust, bluish-grey; thorax narrowed in front and at base, punctate; elytra, punctate-striate.

Rostrum black, with a broad central shallow depression. Thorax convex, scarcely as broad as long, closely covered with minute shining granules, slightly narrower in front than behind, gradually widening towards the middle, and then narrowing again. Elytra arched, striate-punctate, slightly wider at the shoulders than the thorax at its base, gradually widening towards the middle, thence narrowing again to the apex; the apices acute; the whole surface thickly covered with minute shining granules; there are also a few short hoary hairs towards the apex, and along the sides. The general colour is bluish-grey. Legs and antennæ concolorous, thickly covered with minute shining granules, and furnished with a few short hoary hairs. Antennae long, slender.

page 93

Obs.—This was the most representative species of the series collected, fifteen specimens having been obtained. In some of the members there is a slight difference in colouration, some being brownish-grey, but this is doubtless a sexual distinction. The chief interest attaching to this genus, however, is the fact that it is confined solely to the Pacific Islands. The following are the localities from which representatives have hitherto been obtained:—New Hebrides, New Guinea, Fiji, Tahiti, Vanikoro, and Nukuhiva.

Mr. Woodford, in his paper on "The Gilbert Islands,"* gives the following list of species as obtained by him in that group:—? Amarygmus, sp., Pantopoeus guisens, Coccinella transversalis, G. arcuata, Necrobia rufipes, Tribolium ferrugineiom, Dermestes, sp., Carpophilus, sp., Silvanus, sp., C'arcinops (?) sp., Trogosita mauri-tanica, Alphitobiuspiceus, A. diaparinus, Sitophilus, sp., Adelocera modesta, Monocrepidius, sp., Nacerdes, sp. (2), and a genus allied to Tribolium (?) sp.