228 REVISION OF THE GENUS PAROPSIS, 



— manifestly less fine than in ruhrosignata, Bohevn., sexpustulaf a, 

 Marsh., &c. The interstices are almost flat in the male, slightly 

 convex in the female. In the male the basal joint of each of the 

 four anterior tarsi is very much dilated, and the apical ventral 

 segment is deejDly and largely declivous behind, the declivous 

 portion reaching forward further in the middle (where it comes 

 not far from the base of the segment), thus appearing like a kind 

 of semicircular excavation (the front outline of which, however, 

 from a certain point of view is subangular in the middle). 



I believe fallax, Newm., to be a var. of this species. I have 

 examples from Victoria and S. Australia which agree well with 

 the description of fallax, and although they seem to be a trifle 

 more depressed and slightly less rounded on the sides than typical 

 morio. with the concavity on the apical ventral segment of the 

 male not reaching quite so far forward and having scarcely (or 

 not) an}' appearance of angularity in front, I cannot look upon 

 thein as representing a distinct species. 



I have descril)ed P. morio somewhat fully, because it is desirable 

 to have a few easily recognised species with which others can be 

 compared or contrasted, and this is an easy one to identify, being 

 common and widely distributed, and, though variable in colour, 

 well distinguished b}^ the ventral characters of the male, no other 

 species that I have seen (of those at all nearly resembling it 

 superficially) having anything like the deep well defined concavity 

 on the apical segment that I have described above. 



I have not seen the t3^pe of P. morio (which is probably in the 

 British Museum), and, therefore, there is of course a bare possi- 

 bility that my identification is wrong, but even in that case the 

 species is equally available for comparison with others, though it 

 should prove to be " morio, Blackb., nee Fab." I may say, how- 

 ever, that it agrees well with the original description, with the 

 exception that Fabricius calls the prothorax '' lajvis," while in the 

 species before me the disc of the prothorax is " subtilissime punc- 

 tulatus," and the sides are impressed moderately closely with 

 fairly strong punctures (as in almost every Paropsis known to 



