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REVISION OF THE GENUS PAROPSIS. 



By Rev. T. Blackburn, B.A., Corresponding Member. 



Part I. 



Paropsis is probably the most numerously represented in Aus- 

 tralia of the Coleopterous genera, and there is certainly no genus 

 in greater need of revision or presenting greater difficulties to 

 the task of revision. In attempting the task I cannot hope to 

 execute it in a final manner owing to the large number of species 

 that have been described in such fashion that it is impossible to 

 identify them without seeing the tyj)es, and of the types there is 

 little doubt many have perished, while the rest are so scattered 

 over public and private collections as to preclude the examination 

 of them by any individual' reviser. 



The species of this genus are extremely difficult to identify 

 for another reason, viz., their great variability in respect of colour 

 and markings. There is no species of which I have seen a long- 

 series in which I do not find moi'e or less variability, and there- 

 fore it is necessary for the describer, if his workns to be of value, 

 to base his specific distinctions almost entirely on structural 

 characters, on form, and on sculpture. 



In dealing with the enormous mass of species constituting the 

 genus Pan.psis the first step must necessarily be to divide the 

 species into primary groups, and for this division I have come to 

 the conclusion that in the main the best character to rely upon is 

 that which Dr. Chapuis proposed for the purpose (Ann. Soc. Ent. 

 Belg. XX.), viz., the sculpture of the elytra, for the adoption of 

 any other character (that I have experimented with) disregards 

 too radically the obvious affinities of species or fails by merely 

 separating a few groups of very small extent and leaving the 



