Stegnocephala costulata (Suffrian, 1863)

This species is easily distinguished from the rest of its group by its unicolor blue pronotum; one species, moreover, has the most striated elytra. The head is flat, with a somewhat back-stepping forehead; the frons has clear side edges and rises against the diagonally falling cheeks, slightly indented underneath. The surface is not punctured, and lightly glossy; the forehead is a murky tan. The lower portion of the head is yellow-red. The extended, not wide, but deeply indented eyes are somewhat compressed at the top. The antennae (of the female) are not half the body’s length. The scape is stretched out, slightly thickening at the top and bending outwards; the second segment is round, half as wide as the first; the third is very thin, more than twice as long as the second; the fourth likewise thin, equal in thickness as the second and third; the succeeding segments each as long as the fourth, but clearly compressed together, and from the sixth onwards, at the inner sides notably broadening. The lower four segments are bright yellow-red; the fifth is tanned, and the upper ones are black, covered with thin gray hair and distinguished with lashes. The pronotum is more than twice wide as long, lightly bulged across in the middle; most of its front portion, until the middle, curves downwards. The pronotum is strongly compressed, [rising] over the deeply retracted, sharp, rectangular front edges, and, as a result, narrows together. The rather wide, bordered sides, with very flat, from the middle onwards softly outward-bending arches, slant together towards the front. The sharp hind edges stretch out wide and flat, somewhat rising above a light, skewed indent. The hind edges are both widely indented, with short, broad, vague point in the middle. In front of this point on either side is a marked indentation, and both indentations are joined by a faint cross-stripe protracting from the midpoint. The surfaces are clear, but neither deeply nor dispersedly punctured; in the hind corners, the punctures are crowded closer together, partially forming into cross and skewed wrinkles. The color is a dark iron blue with a strong gloss. The scutellum is triangular, half long as wide; towards the back, it rises softly and ends abruptly. The hind tips and and front dimples are unclear, the color likewise glossy iron blue. The elytra is as wide as it is long, the front somewhat wider than the pronotum; behind the shoulders they arch outward, and then round off in a wide curve at the back. the roots are pressed downwards across, and then bulge upward again, so that the one that lies behind the scutellum, with its end and enclosing, extended bulge, forms the highest part of the back, which from here onwards, stronger at the sides, declines in a gradual arch along the seam until the end tip. The large, semispherical shoulder bumps are offset by the triangular, extended front end of the fifth puncture-stripe. The side-flaps are wide, with dangling, enveloping margins; over these is a flat cross-indentation pulling the back upwards. The puncture-stripes are very regular—clear stripes forming from deep, crowded punctures, somewhat fainter towards the back, and only the first punctures of the stripes arising from behind the shoulder bumps are isolated. Besides the inner, cut-off stripes, the first stripe also runs out from under the curve, while the posterior ends of the second and the ninth, third and fourth, fifthe and sixth, seventh and eighth, meet together. The interspaces rise up as wide, flat curving tread ribs, from which the ninth interspace meet the preceding ones along their widths. The surface is glossy iron blue, only the wide, turned-down edges of the side flaps are dull blue-black and covered with close, scarred punctures. The pygidium and abdomen are finely punctured in wrinkles, covered with a thin layer of hair, bright yellow-red next to the legs. The undersides of the pronotum, along with the front and mid chest are deep brown-black. The hind chest is crowded with punctures, blue-black; only the side edges of the parapleura, which are covered up by the side flaps, are glass-like yellow brown. The anterior edge of the prosternum is rounded off in the middle and cup-shaped; the midfield is covered with scattered, coarse punctures, rising in the front in a bulge, dented in the back as a semicircle, with long and pointed, protuberant hind edges. The mid chest is rectangular, located somewhat behind the prosternum; the claws are black. The last segment of the female has a deep, semispherical pit, not found in the male.

[Translated from the original German in Suffrian, 1863].