Schizonycha is one of the largest genera of Melolonthidae. Over 300 species have been described, of which all but 8 are African and of these about 120 occur south of a line drawn across the continent, following the border between Angola and Southwest Africa in the west and continuing eastward along the course of the Zambesi to the mouth of that river. This area, called "southern Africa" in the present work, appears to form a natural faunistic unit, very few species of Schizonycha occurring on both sides of the line. In view of this, because of the number of species involved and because of the relative accessibility of type material, a revision of the species of Schizonycha of southern Africa was undertaken as a first step toward an investigation of the genus as a whole.