Volume II Part 54 (1/2)

Erichs. Genera et species Staphyl. sp. 8 page 351 1840.

Habitat Australia (King George's Sound) Captain George Grey, Museum British.

The specimens brought home by Captain Grey seem to me identical with the above. Fabricius describes the thorax (truncated in front and rounded behind) as having the anterior margin rufous in the middle, it being wholly of a deep s.h.i.+ning black, and as Olivier (l.c.) remarks, the neck or narrowed collar (qui joint la tete au corcelet) is rufous yellow as is the squareish transverse head with a black spot on the crown. The scutellum and elytra are minutely punctured or chagrined, and hairy (except a small smooth oblong s.p.a.ce on the shoulder of the latter) and are black with a violet tinge; in one specimen the elytra have scarcely any of the blue tinge, and the spot on the shoulder is of a ferruginous hue; the wings are violaceous. Dr. Leach had regarded this as a distinct subgenus, but as the name he had given it is pre-occupied in Botany, and has not been published with or without characters, as far as I am aware, I have not given it.

CRYPTODUS, Macleay.

C. variolosus, Burmeister (Westwood Monograph ined.)

Smaller than Mr. Macleay's species and of a pitchy brown, it is less depressed; the head is squarer and not so broad, the two tubercles are more prominent, the mentum is deeply emarginate: antennae nine-jointed; basal joint dilated, prothorax not so transverse, much more closely punctured: the elytra are scarcely dilated behind, shorter, and are covered with exceeding minute punctures in addition to the larger ones.

Inhabits King George's Sound, Captain George Grey. (British Museum.)

Mr. Westwood informed me that Professor Burmeister had sent him a description of this species under the above-mentioned name; the characters are the princ.i.p.al of those which will appear in Mr. Westwood's elaborate memoir. I had written a description of this species and a.s.signed a name to it, which however I withdraw. There are more than two species of this curious genus, first published in the Horae Entomologicae.

BRACHYSTERNUS, Guerin. (s.g. Epichrysus.)

B. ? (E.) Lamprimoides, new species. Ill.u.s.tration 18 Insects 1.

Viridi aureus, thorace corporeque subtus tomentosis.

Yellowish metallic green, legs darker. The head is somewhat square, the transverse suture being rather indistinct; the margin of the clypeus is distinctly reflexed. Antennae dark brown, ten-jointed; 1st joint longest, thickened at the end, with ferruginous hairs behind; 2nd rounded, thin; 3rd, 4th, and 5th, with the separating lines very indistinct, those before the 3 lamellated joints short, transverse. Maxillary palpi with the terminal joint dilated, rather blunt at the tip, depressed above, and hollowed out at its base. Legs rather thick, the outer of the two tarsal claws of the third pair of legs, cleft at the end, anterior tibiae externally sub-tridentate. Thorax with the sides somewhat angulated and narrowly margined, rounded behind, but the sides of the posterior margin are straight, the surface is minutely punctured and covered with brown hairs, the sternum of the mesothorax is without a spine, or projecting angle; elytra in some specimens of a rich, lively, metallic, yellowish green, in other coppery green with the suture and margin dark green, the surface chagreened and punctured. Underside of the body and legs dark green, the former covered with ash-grey p.u.b.escence, or rather longish soft hairs.

This insect seems to be one of those links which connect such genera as Anoplognathus, Amblyterus and Brachysternus, and it is very difficult to say to which of these genera it is most allied. Professor Burmeister has begun to eradicate the Phyllophagous genera of Beetles, and from his deep knowledge of Entomology, and the particular acquaintance which he has with the principles of general Zoology, as well as the thorough manner in which he means to go through all the species, much light may soon be expected to be thrown on the subject; how true is Darwin's remark, made in speaking of a somewhat anomalous bird, ”this, from its varied relations, although at present offering only difficulties to the systematic Naturalist, ultimately may a.s.sist in revealing the grand scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organized beings have been created.” (Journal and Remarks Voyage of Beagle 3 page 112.)

BIPHYLLOCERA, g.n.

Antennae (seemingly) nine-jointed, the first joint long, much thickened at the end, and furnished with several stiff hairs, the five last are lamelliform, the lamellae in the male long, and pinnated on one side; labium deeply grooved in the middle, notched at the tip; palpi with the terminal joints longest, sub-cylindrical; head moderate; clypeus separated by a distinct line, basal part slightly hollowed out, as is the head between the eyes; thorax short; elytra elongate, somewhat rounded on the lateral edge, truncated at the end; legs slender; tibiae of first pair anteriorly sub-tridentate, tibiae of second and third pairs with many spines, claws of posterior tarsi entire, joints of tarsi, slender, elongate.

In the system this would come at no great distance from the genus Serica, the compound lamellated joints are, I believe, the first noticed amongst Phyllophagous Coleoptera.

Biphyllocera kirbyana, sp. n. Ill.u.s.tration 19 Insects 2 Figure 1 a and b.)

Piceo-brunnea, subtus piloso-fulvescens, thoracis margine flavescente, dorso, hirtello; elytris 9 (saltem) lineis longitudinalibus impressis, interst.i.tiis transverse substriolatis quasi squamulatis.

s.h.i.+ning, more especially on the head and clypeus, the crown of the head very smooth, the s.p.a.ce between the eyes with impressed punctures, the clypeus slightly notched in front; antennae pale-ferruginous; thorax with short rust-coloured hairs, and the lateral margin slightly reflexed and paler than the dorsal part, which is covered with short striolae, giving a squamulate appearance to it; when narrowly examined, just above the rather large and bluntish scutellum, there are some distinct scattered punctures; thorax beneath covered with fulvous hairs.

Habitat King George's Sound, Captain George Grey.

There are two more or less injured specimens of this species in the collection of the British Museum. In the same collection, from the same locality, are two specimens of what I regarded as the females of the B.

kirbyana; they are larger and of a pale brown; one of these is figured in the accompanying wood-cut figure 2. In the lamellae of the antennae of the two specimens there is considerable difference, so that probably there may be a second species of Biphyllocera. I have given it the name of B. fabriciana.

Lamprima micardi, Reiche in Guerin's Rev. Zool. 1841, Number 2, page 51.

Habitat King George's Sound, Captain George Grey.

Porrostoma rufipenne (Fabricius) Laporte Histoire des Anim. Art.

Lycus rufipennis, Fabricius Syst. El. 2 page 114 to 120.

Habitat King George's Sound.

Porrostoma serraticorne (Fabricius) Lap.

Lycus serraticornis, Fabricius Syst. El. 2 3 page 6.

Habitat King George's Sound.