714 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTERA, 



Philophlceus fuscipennis, Germ. 



This name should drop out of the Catalogue, as the description 

 is certainly insufficient for positive identification, and it refers 

 almost certainly to one of the insects described by the Baron de 

 Chaudoir in 1869 ; the Baron thought it to be probably his imma- 

 culatus or x>lcinus. It appears to me more likely to be his unicolor, 

 but as there seems to be no probability of arriving at any cer- 

 tainty on the point it would be better to treat the name as though 

 it were non-existent. 



Philophlceus planus, Chaud. 



My collection contains a good many specimens which appear to 

 appertain to this species. Unfortunately the description does not 

 give any account of the colour of the prothorax. In my examples 

 this segment is unicolorous with the elytra, having like them, a 

 pale border. De Chaudoir also omits mentioning the colour of 

 the elytra, merely remarking that they are devoid of pattern. My 

 examples have brown elytra with a pale border. According to the 

 description this species is distinguished from unicolor inter cdia 

 by its smaller size, but my largest examples are not smaller than 

 the smallest measurements given for unicolor. The shortness of 

 the elytra in proportion to their breadth, the evidently greater 

 concavity of the front outline of the prothorax, and the greater 

 contraction of this segment behind making the hind angles less 

 marked appear however to be good characters, but (as de Chaudoir 

 says) the two species are certainly very close to each other. I 

 find that the number of piliferous punctures on the sides of the 

 prothorax varies from 4 to 6. 



Philophlceus opaciceps, sp.novx 



Pubescens ; minus parallelus ; testaceus vel rufo-testaceus ; 

 elytris (marginibus lateralibus exceptis) et abdominis marginibus 

 lateralibus, infuscatis ; capite subtiliter coriaceo et sparsius sub- 

 til ius leviter punctulato ; prothorace transverse subcordato, antice 



