BY W. W. FROGGATT. 115 



easy to find any difference between the larvre of these beetles, both 

 having the same constricted segments, and spines on the anal 

 segment. 



TIjis beetle is not common in the bush, and is generally found 

 upon Leptosfermum, ra. November. 



Since breeding them from Botany, I have also bred them from 

 some stems of the Whipstick-scrub gum (Eucalyptus gracilis), 

 infested bi-anches of which I collected near Bendigo, Victoria, in 

 August, and which I found to contain this beetle early in last 

 March. 



Symphyletes solandri, Fab. Ent. Syst. Vol. i. p. 292. 



Larva legless, white, short and stout ; jaws black, thick, mouth 

 parts deep reddish-brown, labrum pale yellow, thickly friuged 

 with bright golden hairs ; forehead broad, slightly punctured in 

 centre, ferruginous at base, lightly clothed with long golden hairs, 

 with a few scattered along the sides of abdominal segments ; 

 tlioracic and abdominal segments, with the exception of the last 

 two, with an elongate warty patch occupying the central portion 

 of each, both on the upper and under sides, a transverse line very 

 slightly impressed passing from behind the head and dividing each 

 segment in the centre ; anal segment smooth, shining, rounded at 

 the tip, fringed with a few scattered hairs. 



This larva attacks the flower stalks of the grass trees (Xan- 

 thorrhoert), feeding upon the dry woody pith, and forming straight 

 irregular tunnels down the centre, and then gnawing round the 

 stem close up to the outer bark about a foot above where the 

 flower stalk springs from the stem. This causes the upper portion 

 of the stalk to fall ofi", whereupon the larva, after plugging the 

 hole, retreats downwards, forming a straight chamber down the 

 remaining length of the stem, at the bottom of which it pupates. 

 In the month of September, between Botany and La Perouse, I 

 have seen the flower stalks of every grass tree on a hill side thus 

 cut ofi", and found living pupje and larvae in most of them. 



The perfect beetle appears in the latter part of October, and 

 can be found in a favourab e season feeding upon the bark of the 



