1252 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTERA, 



the sculpture of the elytra ; from both it differs in the very much 

 larger and deeper excavation of the prothorax in the ^, a 

 difference somewhat difficult to express in specific terms, but the 

 following will perhaps avail : — the perpendicular depth of the 

 excavation is as great as its greatest width (in the other species 

 much less) ; if the excavation be examined by looking along the 

 insect (longitudinally) from behind, the specimen being held so 

 that the eye has the base of the prothorax just exactly covering 

 the apex of the same (beyond which the frontal horn rises), the 

 outline of the excavation appears as an exact semicircle (or even 

 slightly more than a semicircle) while in the other species it is much 

 less than a semicircle ; it also differs from both the above-named 

 species in the almost perfect smoothness of that portion of the 

 surface of the prothorax which falls within the excavation (such 

 sculpture as there is consisting in very minute and sparse granu- 

 lation) ; the same part in Adelaidce and striatopunctulatus being 

 reticulately strigose. The female does not differ notably from that 

 of N. Adelaidce except in its wider proportions. The female of N. 

 striatopunctidatus is unknown. 



From N. simplex, Shp., the present species differs in its frontal 

 horn being notched at the apex, and from N. crassus, Shp., in the 

 prothoracic excavation not being in the smallest degree " rugu- 

 losely punctulate." 



If. crassus, Shp., differs in toto from the two species of which 

 the female is known to me by the characters of that sex, which 

 include a tubercle on the head and an excavation on the prothorax. 

 Is it possible that Dr. Sharp may be mistaken in regarding this 

 insect as 9 Novapus ? The question is suggested by the fact that 

 for a long time (and until positive information enlightened me) I 

 regarded as the 9 of N. Adelaides an insect which has a tubercle 

 on the forehead and a gentle excavation on the front of the pro- 

 thorax, but which I have since ascertained to be certainly not 

 Novapus (I believe it to be Setnanopterus siobcequalis, Hope). 



If this might be so my N. Adelaidce would be very near iV. 

 crassus, Shp., but would appear to differ from it in its much 



