2(J4 [November, 



it was even more abundant, for on turning back the stems of a patch 

 of Erica tetralix upwards of fifty specimens were observed in a space 

 of about half a square foot, and it appeared to be spread over the 

 moor. Mauy of the specimens were only recently disclosed. Mr. Lyle 

 tells me that in some years the larvae may be swept up in tens of 

 thousands from the heather of the moors, but that this year it was 

 rarer than on many other years. His identification of the larva was 

 quite correct as I reared some of those he gave me. 



Brockenhurst : 



October 16th, 1914. 



NOTES ON THE AUSTRALIAN XYL0PHIL1DJE DESCRIBED BY 



BLACKBURN, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF A REMARKABLE NEW 



SPECIES FROM QUEENSLAND. 



BY G. C. CHAMPION, F.Z.S. 



The types of the various Australian species described by Blackburn 

 in 1891 under his genera Syzeton, Syzetoninus, and SyzetoneUus have 

 been recently acquired by the British Museum. They cannot be 

 separated from Xylophihis, some of them indeed being closely related 

 to American members of the last-named genus.* The tarsal aud abdo- 

 minal structm-es noticed by Blackburn are exactly those of Xylopliilus, 

 aud the chai-acters he relied upon to distinguish his three supposed 

 new genera inter se, mainly taken from the relative size of the eyes and 

 the form of the antenna), are of no value for generic definition, as 

 shown by the European X. (Euglenes) oculatus, Payk., and pygmseus, 

 deG-eer, in which the eyes differ greatly in size in the two sexes ; the 

 antennae, too, in the males of these insects being very differently formed 

 from those of the females. Blackburn's paper was overlooked by me 

 in 1895 when I described four species of Xylophihis from Australia, 

 but this does not affect the validity of the last-tiamed insects. The 

 following very interesting minute form from Queensland is now 

 added : — 



Xylophilus malleifer, n. sp. 



S . Oblong, narrow, shining, rufo-testaceous, the eyes black, the elytra each 

 with an obliquely placed triangular piceous patch on the disc beyond the 

 middle ; upper surface closely punctate, the punctures on the head and prothorax 

 minute, those on the elytra coarser ; sparsely, very finely pubescent. Head 

 together with the eyes fully as wide as the base of the prothorax ; eyes large, 

 coarsely facetted, contiguous above. Antennae long, stout, joint 1 much stouter 

 than those following, 2 short, transverse, 3—7 decreasing in length, 3 much 

 longer than 4, 8 and 9 twisted, subtrianguiar, 10 and 11 together dilated into 



* cf. Biol. Centr.-Arn., Coleopt. IV, 2, pis. 8 and 21, on which 35 species are figured. 



