692 AUSTRALIAN AND TASMANIAN PSELAPHIDiK, 



Victoria, in a paper specially dealing with such iuquilines of all' 

 families of beetles, the others being given here.* 



So far as the family is concerned, I am, however, rather fortu- 

 nately placed, having taken numerous species, and often with 

 abundance of individuals, at floods in many parts of Australia, 

 on fence-tops and similar situations at dusk, in nests of ants and 

 termites, and, especially from Tasmania, in mosses, tussocks, and 

 fallen leaves. f Many correspondents have sent me specimens 

 and have even, unsolicited, given me their unique examples. In 

 1900, M. Raflfray published, in these Proceedings, descriptions of 

 many species, the types of which were received from me; and, 

 whilst preparing that paper, he gave me names for many species 

 previously described by himself or other entomologists, many of 

 these names not being mentioned in the paper referred to. Shortly 

 after King's types were acquired by the Australian Museum, I 

 examined the whole of them;J and, in exchange for other insects, 

 received many cotypes. At the time, however, I had not paid 

 special attention to the Pselaphidce, although I had many species 

 for comparison with the types, and often from the same or 

 neighbouring localities; and it is probable (in some cases, unfortu- 

 nately, certain) that specimens appearing in his collection as 

 belonging to but one species, really belonged to two or more. 

 King seldom described the legs, and apparently never examined 

 the ventral segments and metasternum, in which so many remark- 

 able features exist in the males, and which alone quite easily dis- 



* A few species of obscure (probably new) genera, and many females have 

 been left untouched. 



f Mosses, tussocks, and fallen leaves have practically been unexamined 

 for Pselaphid(£ and other small beetles in Queensland, South and West 

 Australia, and very little has been done at them in New South Wales and 

 Victoria. 



+ All families; unfortunately, however, some of the types were represented 

 by labels only, the insects themselves probably having been eaten by Psoci 

 or other vermin, the Anthicidce, perhaps, being the most unfortunate in- 

 this respect. 



