529 



NOTES ON THE AUSTRALIAN GENUS CESTRINUS Er. 

 (FAM. TENEBRIONID^E) AND SOME ALLIED GENERA. 



By K. G. Blair, British Museum. 



(Communicated by H. J. Carter, B.A., F.E.S.) 



The genus Cestrinus was characterised by Erichson in 1842 

 for the reception of two species, C. obscurus and C. trivialis, both 

 from Tasmania. Of these the latter is well known in collections. 

 while the identity of the former seems to have been practically 

 lost. The description is, nevertheless, quite a good one, and 

 evidently applies to the insect described by Hope in the same 

 year as Asida serricollis ( = pat rum denticolle Blanch.) For 

 this a new genus, Prionotus, was proposed by Mulsant and Rev, 

 but this name, being already preoccupied, is invalid. Pascoe 

 later, independently proposed the genus Achora for the same 

 insect. Gebien, in his recent Catalogue of the Tenebrionidse. 

 (1910), sinks Achora Pasc. as a synonym of Prionotus Muls. and 

 Rev, which he condemns as invalid, and proposes a new name 

 Priothorax. The latter name is quite redundant, and Achora 

 Pasc. should be retained as the name of the genus. Cestrinus 

 tuberculatus Carter, if I am right in my determination of two 

 insects from Champion Bay, is also an Achora. C. trivialis Er. 

 thus remains the type species of Cestrinus. 



Isopteron Hope (type, opatroides Hope) has been correctly 

 recognised as synonymous with Cestrinus Er.. but though Hope's 

 name antedates that of Erichson by two years, Champion has 

 already put forward certain objections to its use*, and these 

 have been maintained by later workers. 



By the courtesy of Professor Poulton I have been enabled 

 to examine the types of Isopteron opatroides Hope and Opatrum 

 piceitarsis Hope. The former is slightly the broader insect, with 

 a more transverse thorax and redder antennae; there are also 



'Trans. Ent. Soc, 1894, p.355. 



