0« [February, 



by the splendid" King-beetle," A. viridicenetcs, Don., brilliant metallic- 

 green witb red legs, nearly an inch and a half long and of very stout 

 build, and perhaps the finest species of the genus ; and the smaller but 

 somewhat similar A. analis, Dalm., the most abundant species in the 

 neighbourhood of Sydney. A. porosus, Dalm., rugosus, Kirby, olivieri, 

 Dalm., and cTiloropyrus, Drap., the last being the smallest as well as 

 the latest to appear, are of a light ochreous or brown colour with 

 greenish or opaline reflections, and the first two of these abound even 

 in the city gardens, attacking among other trees the Peruvian ScTiinifs 

 molle. All these beetles, with the exception of A. velutinus, lose 

 much of their beauty when dead and dry, and this is also the case 

 with the fine Melolonthid Xi/Jonychus eucalypti, Boisd., which is, 

 when alive, of a very beautiful though fugitive pale verditer-green 

 tint; the apple-green colour of Sohizognathus prasinus, Boisd., 

 another handsome and not rare species, being much more permanent. 

 About Christmas, the two fine dark-bronze species of Bepsimiis, ceneus, 

 Fab., and manicatus, Swartz, conspicuous for the almost monstrous 

 development of the hind femora of the (^, appear ; the latter species 

 especially abounding at Rose Bay and other open places to such an 

 extent as to bend down by their weight the small branches on which 

 they congregate in clusters of hundreds of individuals ; and when 

 the bushes are shaken or stirred up, they fly off with a loud hum like 

 a swarm of bees. The Rhynchoplwra attached to the gum-trees 

 include a great variety of singular forms, the large rough brown 

 convex species of Gherrus, and the curious spiky EurTiynclius, being 

 perhaps the most conspicuous. In the PhytopJiaga are very many 

 pretty species of CrypfocepJialios and the allied Cadmus, the small 

 pubescent, metallic-green species of Edusa, the lovely Endomy chits ^ 

 like scarlet and black Pliyllocharis cyanicornis, Fab. (found in th 5 

 lUawarra but rarely), and most characteristic of all as well as most 

 numerous in species and individuals, the eminently Australian genus 

 Paropsis. It is not unusual for seven or eight species of these pretty, 

 convex, almost hemispherical beetles, to fall into the umbrella when a 

 single small Eucalyptus bush is shaken, and the range of variation in 

 size and colour-pattern in the various forms is very striking. Some, 

 as P. sexpustulata, Marsh., reticulata, Marsh., marmorata, Oliv., &c., 

 are fine insects, fully equal in size to our Clirysomelm, while others 

 (P. hamadryas, Stal, chlorotica, Chap., &c.) are no bigger than a large 

 Scymnus ; several species bear so close a resemblance in shape, size, 

 and detail of colouring to the forms of CoccinellidcB that occur with 

 them, as only to be distinguished from them on a close inspection. 

 A large section of the genus is characterized, when alive, by brilliant 



