278 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTERA, 



The above characters do not agree satisfactorily with the 

 characters of any hitherto described genus. The species is, how- 

 ever, extremely closely allied to a West Australian insect which 

 has only one claw on each tarsus, and which I take to be EssoUthna 

 ])h(,viata, Pasc. But the examples now before me can hardly be 

 referred to EssoUthna, of which its author says, "the one-clawed 

 tarsi is the most trenchant character of this genus, which in habit 

 (sic) closely resembles Polyphrades,'' nor, I am quite confident, 

 can it be rightly separated generically from the species mentioned 

 above as having one-clawed tarsi. Hence I conclude tliat 

 EssoUthna must either be regarded as inseparable from Polyplirades 

 or re-characterised. I should not be justified in re-characterising 

 it without seeing a type named by its author, and therefore must 

 fall back on referring to Polyphrades (in the Lacordairean sense) 

 this present species, at the same time feeling little doubt that its 

 proper place is beside the species which Pascoe called EssoUthna 

 phiviata and that which I have named E. seriata (Trans. Roy. 

 Soc. S.A. xvi,, p. 50) in spite of their tarsi having only one claw. 

 This species is very different from EsmeUna, Pasc, by its rostral 

 lamina, &c., although resembling it by its unequal claws. 



S. Australia ; Eyre's and York's Peninsulas. 



POLYPHRADES PICTUS, Sp.nOV. 



Ovalis ; niger ; squamis fuscis cinereis et cupreis intermixtis et 

 setis brevissimis clavatis suberectis dense vestita, antennis 

 pedibusque fuscis, his cinereo-variegatis ; rostro quam caput 

 vix longiori, supra 3-carinato, ad basin transversim sulcato ; 

 oculis elongato-ovalibus minus subtiliter (fere ut P. nitidi- 

 lahris, Germ.) granulatis ; antennis robustis modice elongatis, 

 scapo oculum fere superanti, funiculi articulo basali quam 

 2^^ sat longiori et crassiori ; prothorace antice minus angus- 

 tato, fere ufc P. laminati sculpturato, lateribus sat arcuatis ; 

 scutello punctiformi ; elytris ovalibus, punctulato-striatis, 

 interstitiis sub squamas sat convexis, basi subtiliter marginata 

 haud reflexa, quam prothoracis basis vix latiori, sutura 

 postice haud carinata. 



