12 MR. WESTWOOD ON THE AUSTRALIAN SPECIES 



present in English collections and books. The species, moreover, which it will be ad- 

 visable to regard as the type of Bolboceras, will be Sc. quadridens, Linn., as that was the 

 species dissected by Mr. Kirby. 



In 1819 Mr. MacLeay published the description of his genus Elephastomm in the first 

 part of his * Horae Entomologicae,' founded upon the singular Australian Scarabceus pro- 

 boscideus, first described by Schreibers in the 6th volume of the ' Linnean Transactions.' 

 In this strange insect the crown of the head is extended forwards, so as to push the ordi- 

 nary front part of the head, including the clypeus, mandibles and labrum, quite under- 

 neath it ; just as if the human forehead were dilated over the entire face, and the nose and 

 mouth pushed between the chin and the throat ; with this difference, that in the insect 

 the horizontal upper lip and mandibles become perpendicular, whilst the opposite would 

 be the case in a human head so deformed. Referring again to the structure of the maxillae, 

 we find Mr. MacLeay's description of those of Elephastomm, " Maxillae corneas, arcuatae, 

 intus dente acuto et ad apicem lacinia obtusa ciliis spinosulis armatae," incorrect, omitting 

 to notice the upper portion of the inner lobe of the maxillae ; whilst the figure given of it, 

 pi. 2. fig. 10 e, is still more incorrect, omitting both the horny teeth of the lower lobe. In 

 this, however, and all its essential characters, this insect approaches so closely to Bolbo- 

 ceras Australasice, that, long ago, I had attached to a figure of El. proboscideus the follow- 

 ing note : "Is not Bolboceras australasice of Kirby the female ? The box-like clava of their 

 antennae agrees;" and in Dr. Klug's excellent Monograph on the genera Athyreus and 

 Bolboceras, published in the ' Transactions of the Berlin Academy ' for 1843, we find Sca- 

 rabceus proboscideus given as the first species of Bolboceras, with Bolb. Australasia as its 

 female. In fact, with the exception of the extraordinary formation of the head, and the 

 alteration consequent thereupon in the position of the trophi, we can find no variation in 

 the structure of these organs of higher importance (with reference to the question of the 

 retention of Elephastomm either as a genus or subgenus) than the greatly elongated maxil- 

 lary palpi and the identical structure of the two mandibles, which are bifid at the tips. 



The number of the species of the genus Bolboceras was considerably increased by the 

 late Mr. Bainbridge, who published a short paper on some of the Australian species, from 

 the Collection of the Rev. F. W. Hope, in the ' Transactions of the Entomological Society'; 

 by Messrs. Guerin-Meneville and Castelnau, in their several works ; and especially by Dr. 

 Klug, in the monograph above referred to. 



As some confusion has been introduced into the nomenclature of the Australian species, 

 and as I have to add several hitherto undescribed ones from New Holland to the list, in- 

 cluding a closely allied new genus, I have thought it would be desirable in this paper to 

 concentrate the whole of the New Holland Bolbocerata. It may be proper to add, that 

 my quotations of the species described from the Collections of Messrs. Hope and Gory 

 have been made from an examination of the type specimens in Mr. Hope's Collection, with 

 which is now also incorporated that of M. Gory. 



The circumstance of so many of the largest species of this genus being inhabitants of 

 New Holland, where, in consequence of the absence of the larger mammalia, it is impos- 

 sible for them to possess the same habit of burrowing into and under dung, as the Geo- 

 trupes of our moderate climates, is in itself a sufficient evidence that the Bolbocerata, like 



