78 REVISION OF SYMPETKS AND HEL.EUS, ETC., 



of fourteen known species; all (except iS'. unicarinatus Boisd., from 

 Kangaroo Island) being denizens of West Australia. 



Synonymy. 



(1) S. tricostellus Breme(?iec White) = 6'. contractiis Hope, =iS'. 

 gagates Breme. 



(2) S. Macleayi Pasc. = 6'. tricostellus White. 



(3) S. Duhoulaii Paso. = 5". Bremei Hope. 



(4) S. undulatjis Lea = »S'. testiulineus Hope. 



(5) S. magisier Pasc. = Pterohekeus Icarus Carter, and is not a 

 Sympetes (vide infra). 



S. tricostellus Brerae(?iec AV"hite) = 6'. gagates Breme = i.S'. con- 

 tractus Hope. — Through the courtesy of Mr. H. Giles, of the 

 Zoological Gardens, Perth, I have obtained a long .series of 

 Sympetes from that district. My own notes taken at the Hope 

 Museum, and at the London Nat. Hist. Museum, with further 



4 



valuable help given most generously by Mr. C. J. Gahan, enable 

 me to affirm the above synonymy with some certainty. At first 

 I was inclined to separate my specimens into two species, dis- 

 tinguished as follows, the larger A( 19-20 x 14-15 nun.) very nitid, 

 with smaller punctures on the elytra : tlie smaller B(16-18 x 1 l•5- 

 12mm.) with larger elytral punctures. Extreme forms of these 

 are in the Macleay Museum, Sydney, A, (from Rottnest Island) 

 labelled .S'. tricostellus White; B, labelled ^S*. gagates Br. A. more- 

 over, is more convex, with the lateral margins proportionately 

 narrower, especially at apex. All the specimens of A are Q, 

 while those of B are ^. A agrees very well with Breme's figure 

 of aS'. tricostelhis, B with that of S. gagates. Mr. Gahan writes, 

 " The specimen you take to be S. tricostellus{Bveme) agrees rather 

 better than the smaller one with what we have as S. contractus 

 Hope. I don't think your two specimens are really specifically 

 distinct. Our set of specimens here are all more or less inter- 

 mediate between the two, both as to size and punctuation of the 

 elytra." The variations inform, especially sexual, are, therefore, 

 probably responsible for this synonymy. S. contractus Hope, is 

 .evidently, by figure and description, one of these. Indeed, 



