114 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTEaA, 



insect, and inter alia is said to have its elytra " deeply punctate 

 sulcate." 



N. Territory of S. Australia ; also N. Queensland. 



MiCROVALGUS. 



This is an extremely difficult genus to deal with ; it appears to 

 contain numerous Australian species so closely allied inter se that 

 it is most difficult to characterise them in such manner as to 

 enable them to be recognised by description. Only three have 

 been named, — Lapeyrousei, G. & P., (N.S.W. and Vict.), charac- 

 terised as a dark brown species, with reddish elytra and tibiae and 

 underside blackish, and the clypeus perceptibly emarginate ; 

 nigrinus, Macl., (Queensland), entirely black with the clypeus 

 rounded in front; and ca^aneipennis, Macl., (Queensland), having 

 the head and prothorax black and elytra chestnut, and the clypeus 

 truncate in front. Judging by the exaoiples before me, which 

 certainly represent at least several species, the differences in the 

 outline of the clypeus are very slight. The colour as a rule seems 

 somewhat constant, I think I know M. Lapeyrousei and nigrinus ; 

 if my identification is correct the former is evidently larger than 

 the latter, and the basal joint of its hind tarsi is longer in 

 proportion to the second joint. The following species from Western 

 Australia is evidently distinct from any hitherto described. 



MiCROVALGUS YILGARNENSIS, sp.nov. 



Ferrugineus, elytris ad latera et apicem infuscatis ; albido- 

 squamosus ; prothorace quam longiori vix sexta parte latiori, 

 angulis anticis acutis valde productis fere spiuiformibus, 

 posticis obtusis, lateribus leviter arcuatis ; tarsorum posti- 

 corum articulo basali quam secundus plus quam dimidio 

 longiori. , [Long. 1|, lat. ^ line. 



An exceptionally narrow species, coloured differently from those 

 previously described, and remarkable for the very strongly pro- 

 jecting front angles of the prothorax, which (if the head be in its 

 natural subvertical position) stand out free of the body, and are 



