Exophthalmus jekelianus White 1858

Oblong, narrow (♂), broader (♀), shining, black or piceous, the tibiæ and the base of the femora ferruginous in immature specimens; thickly clothed (more sparsely on the disc of the elytra) with small green or cinereous scales, which are condensed into two faint submarginal vittæ on the prothorax and numerous sharply-defined spots on the elytra (mainly on the alternate interstices), the metasternum and first two ventral segments almost bare down the middle; the legs viridi- or cinereo-squamose, the scales on the tibiæ and apices of the femora often violaceous or blue; the surface also set with very short (or longer) scattered hairs. Rostrum longer than broad, widened anteriorly, convexly raised and smooth along the median line; head feebly foveate between the eyes, the latter large, rather depressed, and separated by about their own width; antennal scape reaching the front of the prothorax, the club long. Prothorax transverse, bisinuate at the base, broadly flattened or depressed down the middle, irregularly, confluently foveato-punctate. Elytra subparallel in their basal half in ♂, widened posteriorly in ♀, convex, with a common transverse depression behind the scutellum, mucronate at the tip; with twelve rows of rather coarse punctures, the interstices here and there transversely confluent. First ventral segment slightly depressed down the middle in ♂. Tibiæ slender, not grooved externally, the anterior pair strongly unguiculate, the posterior pair usually irregularly denticulate within in ♀.
 
Length 8—13, breadth 2¾—5 millim. (♂ ♀.)

Hab.NICARAGUA, Chontales (Belt, Janson); COSTA RICA, Rio Sucio (Rogers), Turrialba (Pittier, Biolley), Siquirres, Reventazon, La Palma, La Flor (Biolley), Chirripo, Tuis (Pittier), Azahar de Cartago, Monte Retondo (Underwood), San Carlos, Zent, Puerto Limon (U. S. Nat. Mus.), Piedras Negras (coll. Solari); PANAMA², Bocas del Toro (U. S. Nat. Mus.); PACIFIC SHORE OF CENTRAL AMERICA¹.

Apparently a common insect in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, but I have not seen it from Chiriqui. Amongst the long series examined, seven only have the scales cinereous, instead of green, the form described by White and Pascoe. In a few examples (cinereous and green) the scattered, intermixed, minute, hair-like scales on the elytra are replaced by long erect setæ towards the apex. This species, as already stated (cf. anteà, p. 230), bears an extraordinary resemblance (in both forms) to Mimographopsis pustulatus.
 
The type of P. jekelianus (labelled by White himself) is a female obtained from the collection made by Capt. Kellett during the voyage of H. M. S. ‘Herald’; it was doubtless captured at Panama. The male of White's species has grooved tibiæ and it belongs to E. sulcicrus, infrà. One of Pascoe's types of E. stellaris is figured.