Australian Gitstelidae. .~>7 



Prothorax truncate at base and apex, Bub-cylindric and slightly 

 flattened, feebly nan-owed and rounded in front, posterior angles 

 obtuse, finely and evenly punctate, without medial line, and with 

 a round depression near base. Scutellum widely rounded behind. 

 Elytra considerably wider than prothorax at base, shoulders rather 

 prominent and round, flanks slightly depressed in middle, moder- 

 ately tapering to the apex; striate punctate, the punctures in striae 

 round and regular, the two sutural intervals convex, the rest Hat, 

 intervals finely punctate, underside with short, sparse white pube- 

 scence, and finely punctate. Hind femora of cf swollen, but not 

 ■dentate, last segment of abdomen in cf with small quasi-forciculate 

 appendages. 



Dimensions. — (>-!> x 2-3 mm. 



Habitat. — Rockhampton (Bates's Coll., Brit. Mus.), Port Denison 

 (Macleay Mus.) . 



Var. — One speeimen in the Brit. Mus. has the legs and under- 

 side entirely black, but is, I consider, eonspeeifie with the others, 

 though labelled by Bates with a different MS. name. Type in Brit. 

 Mus. 



Alcmeonis, Bates. 



Prothorax red, elytra blue, abdomen black pulclier, Bates 



Prothorax, elytra and abdomen metallic 



c? with post femora dentate punctulaticollis, Blackb 



o* with post femora undentate excisipes, n.sp. 



Whole surface metallic black paradoxus, n.sp. 



This genus is very doubtfully distinct from Aethyssius in the 

 slightly flatter form, wider prothorax (its base feebly bisinuate) and 

 post intercoxal process sharply triangular. In Aethyssius the 

 metasternal plate is not in general excised behind, thus forming 

 a truncate limitation of the triangular intercoxal process. In 

 Alcmeonis and Chromomoea this plate is also triangularly excised. 

 so that the triangular process is fully completed — not rounded or 

 truncate at apex. The distinction between Alcmeonis and Aethys- 

 sius can searcely be defined by sexual characters, the dentate femora 

 in the $ of Aethyssius only being found in the first three sp. of my 

 table; while from an examination of eight specimens of J. pulcher, 

 I can find no leg character indicating sex; certainly nothing like the 

 •curious male characters displayed in the post tibiae of A. punctulati- 

 collis and A. excisipes. In A. paradoxus the post-tibiae of the cf 

 .are a little flattened and feebly hollowed on the basal half. 



