On Coenochilus maurus, Fabr. (Coleoptera: Cetoniidae)

Some time ago the Leyden Museum received from Mr. Jackson Demery, the Liberian correspondent of Dr. Büttikofer, a small consignment of beetles collected at Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount (Western Liberia). Among these beetles I found a certain number of specimens (males and females) of a Cetoniid which was not yet represented in previous consignments received from that country 1). This species proved to be Coenochilus maurus Fabr., of which a description with figures and synonymy 2) is given by Westwood in his splendid »Thesaurus Entomologicus Oxoniensis” (p. 34, pl. XI, figs. 5 and 5a). As, however, Westwood has derived the description from a single specimen (the Fabrician type) and the figure drawn from an other (Gory’s typical specimen) whereas I myself have several males and females before me, I can state that Westwood is wrong in supposing the small notch in the lateral margins of the prothorax (see fig. 5) to be due to an injury: it is very distinct in almost all our specimens; the minute circular impressions on the disc before the middle, however, are much less constant: in several of my specimens they are wanting, in others they are four in number and irregularly arranged. As to the legs Westwood says: »the posterior margin of the four hind legs is clothed with luteous hairs”, but this is not correct: the posterior margin (under side) of the fore- and middle legs (femora) is clothed with luteous hairs, which are much more densely set (feltlike) in the male than in the female. — The middle of the abdomen is flattened in the male, convex in the female, the pygidium transverse in the male, more triangular in the female, and the calcaria of the hind tibiae are more slender and acute in the male, broader and more obtuse in the female.