BY THOMAS G. SLOANE. 255 



comparison with some other poody described species of the author. 

 Besides arranging the synonymy, Chaudoir, in his "Supplement," 

 redescribed, or made notes on many of Castelnau's species, and 

 described four new species. In 1878 Chaudoir made his last 

 contribution to the genus by the description of N. joar allelomorph a, 

 which I believe to be only a form of N. opulentus^ Casteln.; and 

 in the same year H. W. Bates also described a single species from 

 Tasmania. Nothing further was done till 1889, when I described 

 two new species. Since that date Mr. Rainbow (Rec. Aust. 

 Mus. 1899) described N. montanus, but, as this name had already 

 been used in the genus by Castelnau, albeit Castelnau's name has 

 become a synonym, it cannot stand. This makes forty-five valid 

 species described up to the present time. In the present paper I 

 add twenty-seven, making a total of seventj^-two; no doubt there 

 are many more species yet to be discovered. 



In undertaking the revision of the genus, I have had to make 

 out the species of Dejean, Chaudoir and Motschulsky from the 

 descriptions (except a few that are well known in Australian 

 collections), as well as most of Castelnau's. I have not had 

 Dejean and Motschulsky's descriptions before me,* but have relied 

 on Chaudoir's notes to identify their species. In all cases where 

 I have made out species from descriptions, I have indicated that 

 such was the case in my notes. The identification of many species 

 has proved diflicult, but it has been the work of a number of 

 years, and has been gone over many times in the endeavour to 

 arrive at a correct determination of each species. 



I offer a tabulation of the species known to me in which an 

 attempt is made to arrange the species in a fairly natural 

 order, or at least what seems to me a natural order. But, 

 seeing that the species of a large genus in their relationships 

 towards one another resemble the branches of a tree springing 

 from one trunk, rather than a continuous chain, it is impossible 

 to place them in a linear series by the aid of a dichotomous table 

 without species being separated sometimes from nearly allied 



* Excepting that of Xeuropates pristonycJioides, Motsch. 



