BY THE REV. T. BLACKBURN. 71 



This species is so closely allied to C. difficilis that it seems 

 needless to repeat the diagnosis at length, as the whole of it, 

 subject to the exceptions noted above, may be read as applying to 

 this species, which (placed besides C. difficilis) strikes the eye at 

 once as a much larger and less nitid insect with a very evidently 

 more transverse prothorax. On measurement the prothorax is 

 found to be at least twice (or even a trifle more) as wide as long, 

 whereas in difficilis the width is about once and four-fifths the 

 length. It is unusual among the Chalcopteri to find the prothoi'ax 

 by measurement quite twice as wide as long, though in a good 

 many species that segment appears so to a casual glance. I'he 

 antennae differ considerably from those of C. difficilis (as noted 

 above), Vjut it is doul^tful whether the antennae of the same sex in 

 the two could be relied on to maintain those differences. The 

 more transverse prothorax and less nitid surface, as well as the 

 absence of well-defined ocular sulci, inter alia distinguish C. 

 exoletus from C. eremita, Blackb. An example in Mr. French's 

 collection of slightly more evenly oval form, with the gieen colour 

 predominating and the whole sculpture a little " blurred," is, I 

 think, only an aberrant specimen. It is from the same locality. 



N. Queensland ; Palmer R. ; sent by C. French, Esq. 



C. PKOXIMUS, sp.nov. 



C. raodesto, Blackb., affinis ; oculis quain antennarum articulf 

 basalis longitudine manifeste minus inter se remotis ; elytris 

 subtiliter seriatim punctulatis, puncturis in seriebus inter se 

 sat sequalibus sat crebre positis ; cetera ut C. modesti. 



[Long. 3f, lat. 2^ lines. 

 This species is unsatisfactorily like C. modest as in its colouring 

 and in most of its characters, but is distinguished from it by two 

 characters which seem to me quite inconsistent with specific 

 identity, the eyes being much more approximate inter se (sepa- 

 rated by a space not much wider than the length of the 2nd joint 

 of the antennae) and the seriate puncturation of the elytra being 

 quite on a different system [it consists of very fine deep punctures 

 of very even size (a trifle larger in the outer than the inner series) 



