124 ON THE LIFE-HISTORIES OP AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTERA, 



while its excreta ai'e drawn all over it by the aid of the slime, 

 aud the contraction and expansion of its prickly back ; on the 

 leaves it looks like a slimy slug covered with dirt. 



It feeds upon the leaves of Eucalyptus longifolia, only eating 

 the outer surface, and often completely skeletonising each leaf ; it 

 is plentiful about the neighbourhood of Flemington and Rook- 

 wood, where in January it is common, and many trees may be 

 noticed with a patch of leaves, white or mottled, that have been 

 attacked by these grubs. 



When full grown it crawls down to the earth and buries itself 

 some inches under the soil, where it remains from two and a half 

 to three months before it emerges and re-ascends the tree, on the 

 twigs of which it is to be found clinging later in the year. 



The beetle is 6 lines long and 3 lines 'in width across the 

 shoulders ; black and shining, the thorax furcate, covered with 

 fine white or brownish scales in the furrows ; legs covered with 

 similar greyish scales, while the elytra which are also distinctly 

 ribbed are granulated with scattered greyish scales which form a 

 round grey patch on the apical portion of the elytra. 



OxYOPS HoPEi, Bohem., Schh. Gen. Cure. iii. p. 483. 



The larva of this species is similar in form and habits to that 

 of 0. concreta previously described, but seems to gnaw the leaves 

 in a more patchy manner. 



It is common in the neighbourhood of Bendigo, Victoria, feed- 

 ing upon the leaves of the ironbark. Eucalyptus leucoxylon. I 

 obtained a number of the larvae and several perfect beetles in the 

 latter part of August. 



The beetle is about the same size as 0. concreta ; black and 

 shining, the thorax much more rugose, with the elytra more 

 closely ribbed ; a row of four rounded tubercles on the shoulder, 

 and two pairs, one above the other towards the apex ; the 

 extremity of the elytra at their junction produced into a conical 

 point ; the whole of the insect granulate, with scattered reddish- 

 brown scales, densest on the thorax and shoulders. 



