BY H. J. CARTER. 123 



feeding on the clumps of Aster flowers {Olearia stellulata). 

 Otliervvise only recorded from Kosciusko. 



PterolielcGUS Guerinil Bveme. — I have little doubt but that this 

 is the same insect described by Mr. Blackburn as P. ventralis 

 (Trans. Roy. Soc. South Australia, Vol. xxx., 1907, p. 294). 

 Several specimens of this apparently common insect were given 

 me by Mr. Giles of the Zoological Gardens, Perth. On my visit 

 to the Hope Museum, Oxford, I saw the specimen of P. Guerinii 

 mentioned in De Breme's monograph, and which may therefore 

 be taken as a cotype. Unfortunately I had not my own speci- 

 mens with me for comparison, but the measurements and facies 

 so agreed with my specimens that an examination of these a few 

 days later satisfied me as to their identity with Hope's specimen. 

 On my return to Australia Mr. Blackburn identified these as 

 F. ventralis. 



There is a curious mistake in De Breme's description (Men. des 

 Coss. p. 36) in which the dimensions are given as 17 x 12|mm., 

 while the figure (Pl.ii., fig. 3) measures 28 x 12 mm. If one reduces 

 this length to 17 mm., the proportional breadth would be 7f mm. 

 My own measurement of Hope's specimen is 18x8 mm , while 

 Mr. Blackburn's dimensions for P. ventralis are 8x341. De 

 Breme's figure is thus correctly proportioned, while the width 

 given under the description is a manifest error. Three specimens 

 I now have, vary in length from 16 to 18 mm,, and in width from 

 7 to 8J mm. De Breme gives no locality. Hope's specimen is 

 labelled Australia, but, as many of his Tenebrionidse are from 

 West Australia, there is at least the probability of this being the 

 correct locality, especially as the insect I refer to is common 

 round Perth. Mr. Masters gives Tasmania as the habitat of P. 

 Guerinii^ but there is, I believe, no authority for this.* I cannot 

 agree with Mr. Blackburn's suggestion that P. Guerinii Breme, 

 may be synonymous with P. tristis Germ., since the dimensions 

 of the latter are given as 8J x 5 ]., evidently a much broader 



*A non-pustulose insect from Tasmania, certainly not P. Giierinii Brome, 

 is labelled so in the Australian Museum. This may be the origin of the 

 locality-reference in Masters' Catalogue. 



