Chauliopleurus quadrifoveatus

Moderately elongate, oval, shining, black, the legs sometimes piceous; the prothoracic cavity, the lateral excavations of the elytra, and an oblong space on the flanks between the latter and the lower margin somewhat densely clothed with white, green, or blue scales; the rest of the upper surface and the sides of the body beneath with scattered, whitish, green, or fuscous scales intermixed on the elytra with conspicuous semierect pallid setæ; the legs and antennæ with bristly hairs. Head and rostrum sparsely punctate, the rostrum widened outwards, a little longer than broad, carinate down the middle and with an oblique ridge on each side, the inter-ocular space depressed and feebly foveate; antennal scape reaching to the front of the prothorax; eyes large, depressed. Prothorax transverse, rounded at the sides, obliquely narrowed anteriorly, feebly bisinuate at the base, the disc with a very large, oval or rounded, excavation extending from the base to near the apex; the entire surface shallowly, confluently foveolate and finely punctate. Scutellum transverse, small. Elytra broad, slightly narrower in ♂, inflated, oval, usually more or less tumid on the flanks at a little below the shoulder, with a common, deep, transverse excavation at the base, and a very large, broad, oblong or oblique depression on each side of it between the third interstice and the outer margin, the apices conjointly produced and usually obliquely truncate or mucronate at the tip; punctate-striate, the third interstice smooth, widened, sinuous, and more or less raised, the others sometimes raised or transversely wrinkled. Second ventral segment with a large, deep, angular, plicate excavation on each side behind in both sexes, the first broadly depressed down the middle in the male. Wings short, useless for flight.
 
Length 10 1/5—13½, breadth 3 9/10—5½ millim. (♂ ♀.)

Hab.COSTA RICA (van Patten), Rancho Redondo 1700 metres (Underwood), Poas, 7000 feet (Schaus, in U. S. Nat. Mus.), Turrialba 6500—8800 feet (Lankester, in U. S. Nat. Mus.), Irazu (U. S. Nat. Mus.).

I have seen eight specimens of this peculiar insect, varying in the colour of the scales on the excavate portions of the surface (which are often covered with an ochreous exudation) and in the greater or less inflation of the elytra. The sutural region of the elytra to about the middle and the raised portions of the prothorax are usually almost bare. The deep, angular, plicate depression on each side of the second ventral segment is noteworthy.