172 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



Psammodius. 



This genus has not, to my knowledge, been previously recorded 

 as Australian, although it is of wide distribution in other 

 countries. Mulsant (Lamell. d. France) proposed to V)reak it up 

 into four genera, but Erichson subsequently declined to accept 

 these aggregates as more than sub-genera, and in this he was 

 followed by the Baron de Harold. None of the Australian 

 species known to me can be regarded as typical examples of any 

 of these sub-genera, though one of them comes very near to the 

 sub-genus Psammodius, the only difference I can find consisting 

 in the extreme feebleness (almost absence) of sulcation on the 

 pronotum. The other species differ from the sub-genus Psam- 

 modius by their pronotum not laterally fringed with setae, from 

 the sub-genus Pleurophorus by the basal joint of their hind torsi 

 shorter than the apical spine of the hind tibiae, and from 

 Platytomus by their hind femora not more feeble than the front 

 femora. The characters just mentioned would seem to associate 

 them with Diastictus, but they have not the extremely small 

 claws of that aggregate. Probably they are not far from P. 

 indicus, Har. (from the Malay Archipelago), which is mentioned 

 by its author as not referable to any named sub-genus, although 

 the almost absence of sulci on the pronotum perhaps indicates a 

 wide divergence; in respect of this character they would seem to 

 be near P. laevicoUis, Klug., which Harold places near P. indicus. 

 One of these Psammodii, I have already described under the 

 name zietzi, but by some oversight I attributed it to Ataenius, 

 which I now see is certainly not its right place. 



In assigning these insects to Psammodius, it seems desirable tc 

 say that I have not succeeded in making a satisfactory observa- 

 tion of the mouth organs, and that I am not sure of the outer 

 lobe of the maxillae being denticulate at the apex. The species 

 before me differ from Aphodius, Ammoecius, etc., in having the 

 top of the front declivity of the elytra defined, and from Euparia, 

 Ataenius, and Rhyssemus by their hind tibiae strongly dilated 

 towai'ds the apex. Their hind femora of widely oval form (with 

 the front outline very strongly arched), and the strongly 

 granulate head with its clypeus not distinguished from the 

 general surface, are quite in accordance with Psammodius, as 



