218 



REVISION OF THE GENUS PAROPSIS. 

 By Rev. T. Blackburn, B.A., Corresponding Member. 



Part III. 



[Cominencing the treatment of the species forming Gi'Oiip VI. (as 

 characterised in P.L.S.N.S.W. 1S96, p. 638) of the genus.] 



To (leal successfully with this enormous aggregate it seems 

 necessary to begin by breaking it up into subgroups, which, how- 

 ever, is a very difficult task, as it is scarcely possible to specify 

 structural characters that can be absolutely relied upon singly to 

 characterise sharply defined sets of species. Nevertheless when 

 one has an extensive series of species under observation there is not 

 much difficulty in grouping them, although the difficulty remains 

 of putting down on paper in a satisfactory form the characters 

 that distinguish each aggregate. The following is the best 

 and most easily characterised arrangement I can suggest. First, 

 there is no difficulty in separating a small group of small species 

 (which I think should be placed at the end) having the head very 

 strongly produced in front of the eyes. Next, a study of the 

 elytral sculpture reveals four distinct types of puncturation and 

 two of these seem to be limited to species that resemble each 

 other in various respects that indicate the particular types of 

 sculpture as characteristic of really natural aggregates. The 

 striking feature in the first of these aggregates is that the seriate 

 punctures are very widely spaced in the rows, so that the distance 

 between puncture and puncture is greater (generally much 

 greater) than the diameter of the individual punctures. The 

 species thus punctured are comparatively small ones of more or 

 less hemispheric form, having the prothorax very little uneven on 

 the sides and the suture non-carinate. They are all of testaceous 

 colour, some of them mottled with brown or Ijlack. The pecu- 

 liarity of sculpture in the second of the aggregates mentioned 



