Revision of the Australian Aphodiides. 165 



(Gayndah) which bear the name on the authority of Mr. Masters, 

 -who is so remarkably accurate in his determinations that I have 

 no doubt he is right in this case. The name seems to have been 

 given with reference to a "very minute tubercle or tuberosity (on 

 the back of the head on each side) which is extended in a raised 

 line to the lateral border." This appears to be traceable in (at 

 any rate most of) the Australian Ataenii, and is the line in 

 which the subhorizontal narrow base of the head meets the 

 declivous front part of the head ; in semicornutus it certainly 

 appears a little more conspicuous than in some other species 

 {e.g., australis, Har,), and its inner end is a little more abrupt and 

 tubercle-like, but does not seem to me to justify such a name as 

 semicornutus. I have met with specimen in Central Australia 

 which I cannot separate from those sent by Mr. Masters. The 

 species is somewhat near A. australis, Har., and sparsicollis, 

 Blackb., but is readily distinguishable from both by the lateral 

 part of its pronotum (not opaque with dense shallow rugulosity 

 but) nitid and bearing coarse deep puncturation, and by the disc 

 of its metasternum devoid of punctures except in the extreme 

 front. The puncturation of the disc of the pronotum is almost 

 as in A. sparsicollis, Blackb. 



A. TWEEDENSIS, Sp. nOV. 



Minus angustus; minus parallelus; minus depressus; sub- 

 nitidus fere glaber; piceo-niger vel rufo-piceus, antennis palpis 

 pedibus et corpore subtus dilutioribus; capite (parte basali 

 excepta) laevi vel vix subtilissime punctulato, antice emarginato; 

 sutura clypeali nulla; prothorace quam longiori fere ut 4 ad 3 

 latiori, subquadrato, supra in disco inaequaliter vix crebre sat 

 grosse (antice subtilius) punctulato, latera versus puncturis baud 

 magis crebris et areis laevibus intermixtis, lateribus leviter 

 arcuatis, angulis omnibus obtusis, basi infra superficiei planum 

 marginata; scutello triangulari minus elongate; elytris crenulato- 

 striatis, interstitiis sat latis minus (apicem versus magis perspicue) 

 convexis, spina humerali parva; metasterni disco baud punctulato; 

 tarsorum posticorum articulo basali valde elongato. 



Long. 2 ]. Lat 1 1. (vix). 



The prominent characters of this species are the absence of 

 sculpture on the head (except some punctures across the base), 



