Discoveries in Australia Volume I Part 45

Biphyllocera kirbyana, White, App. to Grey's Australia, 2 462.

STOKES, INSECTS. PLATE 1, FIGURE 4.

Habitat: Australia.

In figure 4a are well seen the beautifully pectinated lamellae of the antennae in this genus.

The species is of a pitchy brown, beneath it is yellowish and hairy; the margin of the thorax is yellowish, its disk has many short rust-coloured hairs, the elytra have 9 longitudinal impressed lines, the s.p.a.ces between transversely striolated and somewhat scaled.

Calloodes grayia.n.u.s, White, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, January 1845.

STOKES, INSECTS. PLATE 1, FIGURE 3.

Head green, punctured, head s.h.i.+eld yellowish, sides rounded, somewhat straight in front, under side of head bronzy ferruginous. Thorax narrow, the sides slightly rounded so as to be almost continuous with the lateral line of the elytra; behind it projects in the middle, and is notched over the scutellum: of a lively glossy green, the sides broadly margined with yellow. Elytra much depressed, especially on the sides and behind, having a wide but shallow sinus on the sides; surface punctured, the punctures generally running in striae, some of the rows placed in slightly grooved lines: lively glossy green, sides broadly margined with yellow. Legs and underside ferruginous, bases of abdominal segments green, as are the tips of the femora and all the tarsi: front edge of tibiae of fore-legs without teeth, hind tibiae moderate.

Habitat: New Holland, North-West Coast.

Cetonia (Diaphonia) notabilis.

INSECTS. PLATE 1, FIGURE 5.

Head for the most part yellow, the yellow extending in a point to beyond a line drawn between the eyes, behind deep black, margin somewhat thickened, brownish, four small obscure spots in front; antennae and palpi brown. Thorax, with many scattered punctures, yellow, with a large black mark occupying the greater part of the upper surface, narrowed and notched in front, sinuated slightly on the sides, and with two notches in the middle behind. Elytra with many punctures arranged indistinctly in lines, brownish yellow, the suture, tip and extreme edge of each elytron narrowly margined with brown; scutellum yellowish, black at the base and tip. Abdomen beneath yellow, each segment margined with brown, the pygidium yellow, with two largish oblique black spots. Legs black, posterior femora edged in front with yellow. Length 9 lines.

Habitat: New Holland.

This species seems to be allied to Schizorhina succinea Hope.

Transactions of the Entomological Society, 3 281.*

(*Footnote. I may here mention, that in the collection of the British Museum there is a female of the Diaphonia frontalis, in colour closely resembling the male; and that the D. cunninghami of G.R. Gray, regarded by both Burmeister and Schaum as the female of D. frontalis, is decidedly a distinct species; it was described and figured by M.M. Gory and Percheron, from a female specimen now in the British Museum.)

Stigmodera elegantula.

INSECTS. PLATE 1, FIGURE 6.

Head cleft between the eyes; Prothorax above and beneath vermilion, with a greenish black spot in the middle, and two small black dots, one on each side. Elytra with four double rows of impressed punctures, united at the end. Apex with two sharp points, the outer the longest, a notch between them; the elytra are vermilion, the base has a narrow transverse green band, an angular dark green spot before the middle, with two deep notches in front, and rounded behind, behind this and connected with it by a narrow sutural line of the same colour, is a fascia running quite across the angle in the middle of each elytron, and dilated on the suture, the tip of each elytron is broadly pointed with the same dark green; meso- and metathorax beneath, dark green, as are the legs. Abdomen vermilion.

Length about 6 lines.

Habitat: North-West Coast of New Holland.

This species comes near Conognatha concinnata Hope. Proceedings of the Entomological Society Annals of Natural History 11 318.

Stigmodera saundersii. Hope Transactions of the Entomological Society 4 213.

STOKES, INSECTS. PLATE 1, FIGURE 8.

Black, with a bluish green hue. Head in front bronzed, deeply punctured.

Thorax deeply punctured, with three deep black longitudinal lines above, the middle one broadest: Elytra orange red, with four keels and two rows of deep punctures between each; edge slightly serrated; end of each tapering so as to leave a notch when both are closed; tip broadly black, inclined to green in some lights; a large roundish black patch common to both elytra on the middle, base narrowly edged with black, the shoulders with a black lineolet and a small round black spot across the suture; legs and under parts of a deep bluish black, with a slight tinge of green.

Habitat: Van Diemen's Land.

Stigmodera erythrura.

INSECTS. PLATE 1, FIGURE 7.

Head greenish yellow, deeply punctured, a black band, sinuated in front between the eyes, on the back part of the head. Thorax above black, sides and a narrow line down the middle yellow. Elytra gradually tapering to the end, black with the margin at the base yellow, and a somewhat broader line of the same colour near the suture; on each elytron are three yellow spots, the middle one largest and tipped with red on the outside. Legs and under side greenish yellow; three last segments of abdomen beneath of a rust colour with four longitudinal rows of yellow spots.

Length about 6 lines.

Habitat: New Holland (Swan River).

Clerus ? obesus.

INSECTS. PLATE 1, FIGURE 9.

Head bra.s.sy brown; thorax brownish yellow, glossy; elytra with more than the basal half deep blue, with regular deeply pitted punctures, close to each other, an elevated k.n.o.b at the base in the middle, the apical portion smooth purplish black, the smooth place on the suture running into the pitted part, between the two are four short transverse lines of whitish hairs, two on each elytron; near the tip are two oblique patches of white hairs: head finely punctulate, covered with short hairs. Thorax as it were two lobed behind, an angular depression in the middle, and somewhat narrowed in front; legs deep blue with whitish hairs. Length 5 lines.

Habitat: New Holland.

This curious species bears the above name of Mr. Newman, in the collection of the British Museum, I cannot find his description of it, and not having seen Spinola's work, cannot refer it to its particular genus.

SITARIDA, White.

Head broader than long, swollen behind the eyes; antennae 11-jointed, first joint the longest, bent and gradually thickened towards the tip, second joint thin and cup-shaped, half the depth of third joint which is squarish, fourth joint oblong, dilated anteriorly at the ends, and larger than second and third together, fifth to the tenth joints somewhat lamellate, nearly as long as the other four joints; eyes narrow and notched, the part of the head within the notch prominent; palpi thick, terminal joint oblong. Thorax narrowed in front, rounded on the sides and somewhat truncated behind; scutellum triangular, with a notched projection at the base; elytra very short, one-third the length of the body, wide at the base, narrowed at the tip; legs heteromerous, rather short, all the thighs compressed, claws simple.

This genus, which at first sight looks like a Meloe, is closely allied to Sitaris.

Sitarida hopei.

INSECTS. PLATE 2, FIGURE 2.

Black; elytra slightly pitchy; head and thorax thickly punctured; thorax with a cruciform impression on the disk; elytra with three keels meeting before they reach the apex, the intermediate s.p.a.ces and the apex irregularly punctate.

Length 1 inch 5 lines.