498 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTERA, 



really shorter) have very little free projection ; the emarginate 

 part of the segment, moreover, is not flattened or otherwise 

 distinguished from the general surface. 



I have seen an example belonging to Mr. French, of Melbourne, 

 which I have no doubt is the female of this insect (though the 

 golden coppery spots on the elytra are reduced to a single 

 transverse blotch on the disc about at its middle longitudinally) ; 

 it differs on the undersurface in the punctures being throughout 

 evidently larger, though scarcely more numerous or more strongly 

 impressed, in the subapical spines being scarcely marked and in 

 the apical emargination being much wider and feebler with the 

 inner surface of the substance much more produced, so that the 

 emargination goes through the substance only in its hinder portion, 

 and the free projection of its lateral spines is less. On the upper 

 surface the colour (of this example) is greenish-black, very nitid 

 (as in the male), and the punctures in general differ a little, in the 

 same way as on the undersurface. 



I do not feel quite satisfied that this may not be a very small 

 Alpine race of M. superba, Hope, with the golden colouring much 

 reduced, — but even in that case it seems to call for a distinctive 

 name. 



Victoria ; my example was taken near the summit of one of 

 the higher mountains. 



Melobasis rotundicollis, Blackb. 



A recent revision of the species of Melobasis in my collection 

 has suggested a doubt whether this species may possibly be 

 identical with M. viridi-obscura, Thorns., obscurella, Thorns., or 

 simplex, Germ. The descriptions of those species are too brief to 

 be applied confidently to any insect without a comparison of 

 types, — but they are all about the same size as rotundicollis, and 

 coloured more or less like some of its vars. ; the description of the 

 puncturation, however, does not agree very well. As regards 

 simplex, however, I have another Melobasis which I think still 

 more likely to be it. M. rotundicollis differs from all its near 

 allies (apart from the characters I mentioned when describing, 



