732 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTERA, 



species. A very notable character of the insect before me is the 

 presence of strong puncturation on the metathoracic episterna 

 and on the sides of the metathorax and venti'al segments, such 

 puncturation being coarse and not close in front, and becoming 

 gradually finer and closer hindward. There seem to be no good 

 characters mentioned to distinguish from it Pcecihis interioris, 

 Cast., F. subiridescejis, Macl., and perhaps even P. atronite^is, 

 Macl. ; this latter having " only a trace of iridescence on the 

 elytra," is quite possibly distinct. Pterostichus Icevigatus, Macl., 

 also must be very near it. 



SiMODONTUS. 



I have lately been trying to identify the insects on which some 

 of the earlier descriptions of the smaller species of Feronia (in 

 the wide sense) were made, and have found that it is simply 

 impossible to arrive at any assurance by other means than a com- 

 parison with types that are certainly not in Australia, and many 

 of which are almost certainly non-existent. Most of the smaller 

 species of this group appertain to the genus (or sub-geuus) 

 Simodontus, Chaud., which is characterised in terms that are 

 quite unintelligible, viz., " Elytra ad striam tertiam tripunctata. 

 Caetera ut in OrtJiomo, thoracis angulis posticis rotundioribus." 

 On referring to the description of Orthomus (as quoted by Dr. 

 Schaum in the '' Insecten Deutschlands ; ' I have not the original, 

 which appeared in the Bull. Mosc. 1838) one finds no distinct 

 assertion as to the puncturation of the elytra, but a statement of 

 the characters which distinguish Orthomus from Foecilus and 

 Adelosia (species of both these having the 3rd interstice tripunc- 

 tate), which does not mention any difference in respect of these 

 punctures. In the absence of a reliable type of Orthomus I should 

 be at a loss even to attribute any Australian insect confidently to 

 Simodontus were it not that the Baron de Chaudoir has given a 

 further clue in describing the sjyecies he has attributed to the 

 genus. 



The Baron de Chaudoir appears to regard Argutor australis, 

 Dej., as the type of Simodo7itus, unfortunately a species quite 



