BY WALTER W. FROGGATT. 327 



season, while little streams of dust could be seen falling from the 

 holes where they had gnawed through the bark; most of the 

 fallen branches are hollowed out before they l^reak off, but the 

 larva nearly always remains behind in the stump of the l)ranch 

 feeding into the green wood, which dies down below where it 

 pupates. They take some time to reach maturity, certainly not 

 before the second year, as . I have kept larvae over that time 

 without any sign of their pupating. 



Mr. Geo. Masters tells me that at Elizabeth Bay, Syniphyletes 

 nigro-virens feeds upon the garden Pittosporums; while Strongy- 

 hiriis thoracicus confines its attacks to the white cedar (Jfelia 

 composita), cutting off the branches in exactly the same manner. 



The beetle is 10 lines in length, with dark l^rown head clothed 

 with coarse brown hairs, an elongate spot of silvery white hairs 

 between the eyes; antennae toothed on the outer apical margin of 

 each joint; thorax dark reddish-brown, deeply and coarsely 

 punctured, with three large round patches of white hairs on 

 either side, with another smaller one in front of the scutellum; 

 elytra ferruginous on the shoulders, paler towards the tips, deeply 

 punctured for about two-thirds of their length, but almost smooth 

 towards the apex; a row of 4 small black spots across the 

 shoulders, with an irregular black horseshoe-like band on either 

 side; the tips of the wing covers and the apical margins black; 

 the whole of the upper surface clothed with scattered grey down; 

 underside clothed with greyish hairs, with a patch of white hairs 

 forming an oval mark on the side of each segment. 



The larv?e were most active in the early summer months after 

 the new year, the beetles breeding out early in December. 



Aterpus cultratus, Fabr. 



Larva 5 lines in length, short, -and obese, lying with its back 

 arched and the tip of the abdomen curved towards the head; dull 

 white, with dark chocolate-l)rown head, truncate at the base, 

 mouth parts rather prominent, and with a median groove lightly 

 impressed down the centre of the head; a dark brown transverse 

 line in front of the first thoracic segment; on the dorsal surface 



