[Pboc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, 20 (N.S.), Pt. II., 19o7.] 



Art. XI ir — Tlic Culeopteva of Kiixj Island, Bai<s Sfrdit. 

 By ARTHUR M. LEA. 



(Coinuumieated by J. A. KiTshaw, F.E.S. ) 

 [Read 12th December, 1907.] 



In December, 1906, in company with Mr. A. Conlon, of tlie 

 Tasmanian Department of Agriculture, I spent a few days on 

 King Island, where we stopped in the vicinity of Currie Harbour. 

 Mr. Jas. A. Kershaw, of the National Museum, Melbourne, crossed 

 over to the island with us, but had to proceed some distance 

 away on a search for bones of an extinct emu and of various 

 mammals. Part of Mr. Conlon's, and almost the whole of my 

 time was devoted to collecting ; Mr. Kershaw has sent for exami- 

 nation the whole of the Coleoptera obtained by him, and I have 

 seen a few taken by Mr. H. J. Colbourn, by the late Mr. Alex- 

 ander Morton and by Mr. W. Hickmott, of the island. 



Most of the species were taken on low-growing plants, close 

 to the seaside, on tea-tree and melaleuca scrubs and dwarf 

 eucalypti, never more than a mile from the seaside, on ihe 

 beaches or in sand dunes close thereto. Bark and flower fre- 

 c|uenting beetles are consequently sparsely represented, and very 

 few were obtained under logs and stones. The collecting, in fact, 

 was much the same as could be done on the N.W. coast of Tas- 

 mania or on the S.E. coast of Victoria. 



For the names of 32 species I am indebted to the Rev. T. 

 Blackburn ; I am also indebted to him for suggestions as to the 

 generic positions of a few species. To Mr. T. G. Sloane I am 

 indebted for four names, in addition to two others, the descrip- 

 tions of which are included here. 



The " Victorian Naturalist " for January, 1888, contains an ac- 

 count of an outing of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria to 

 the island, with an account of the island itself and lists of the 

 plants, birds, beetles, etc. Of the beetles 39 species are re- 

 corded, of which, however, 16 are named by the genus only 



