Revision of the Australian ApJiodiides. 163 



Macleay, in describing the species, states that the elytra liave 

 wide striae " tilled with shallow punctures." I cannot therefore 

 accept Harold's statement as reliable, though I have no doubt 

 he is right in calling A. obscurus an Ataenius, but tliere is 

 no conclusive reason alleged for thinking that Macleay was wrong 

 in attributing punctures, rather than granules, to the intervals 

 between the elytra! costae. I have before me several specimens 

 of an Ataenius taken by Mr. H. J. Carter about 50 miles north 

 of Sydney, which present all the few characters attributed by 

 Macleay to A. obscurus (not sufficient evidence, I admit, for 

 contident identification), except that they are a trifle smaller 

 than the size quoted by the describer (If 1. instead of 2 1). This 

 species is near A. australis, Har., and falls beside it in my tabu- 

 lation {v/de supra). It differs, however, from australis not only 

 in being smaller, but also in the disc of its pronotum being still 

 more closely punctulate, and in the 3rd and 5th interstices of its 

 elytra being very evidently less strongly carinate than the ■2nd 

 and 4th interstices. 



A. IMPARILIS, sp. nov. 



Oblongus ; sat opacus ; niger ; palpis antennis tarsis et tibiis 

 anticis plus minusve ferrugineis ; capite confertim subtiliter 

 aspero, aiitice emarginato, sutura clypeali sinuata ; prothorace 

 transversin) subquadrato supra confertim aspere (postice quam 

 antice minus subtiliter) punctulato, angulis anticis ohtusis 

 posticis rectis, margine pone angulos posticos late emarginato, 

 basi haud marginata ; scutello elongato-triangulari ; elyti'is 10- 

 costatis, costis 2^* fere nulla 4^* leviter elevata 6* modica ceteris 

 magis altis, interstitiis seriatim granulatis, spina humerali bene 

 detinita ; tarsorum posticorum articulo basali valde elongate. 



Long. 21 1. Lat. 1 1. 



Very distinct from the other Ataenii, known to me by the 

 sculpture of its elytra which is very remarkable and almost 

 indescribable, owing to the alternate costae being more declivous 

 on their external than on their inner face (but becoming normal 

 close to the apex); consequently, if the elytra be looked at 

 obliquely downward from the side, there appears to be, on the 

 more distant elytron, no costa in the place where the 2nd costa 

 might be expected, but a wide interval between the 1st and 3rd 



llA 



