1906.] 51 



Blue Mountains at an elevation of about 3000 feet. All orders of 

 Insects, the Ooleoptera especially, find in these flowers an almost 

 irresistible attraction, and those of another Myrtaceous shrub, 

 Kunzma corifolia, Eeich. (the " tick-bush "), abundant in waste places, 

 are not to be despised ; but in this respect both are surpassed by those 

 of AngopJiora cordifolia, Cav., par excellence the favourite flower of 

 the Australian Coleopterist. The AnrfopJiora is usually a gnarled and 

 crooked-growing shrub or small tree, mostly found in dry rocky 

 situations, its leaves bearing a sufficient resemblance in appearance 

 to those of the apple-tree to account for its local name. The creamy- 

 white, many-stamened flowers, which appear from the middle of 

 November to the end of the year, are produced in large flat crowded 

 corymbs, and in such abundance as to render a patch of blossoming 

 Angophora a conspicuous object at a long distance in the " busb." 

 The flowers are full of honey, and possess a sweet and rather spicy 

 fragrance, combined with an odour reminiscent of that of ivy-bloom, 

 and somewhat oppressive under a hot sun. The shrub, too, seems to 

 flourish and bloom most profusely on ground over which a bush fire 

 has passed, so that in working it one soon gets covered with a sticky 

 mixture of honey, charcoal, and perspiration, which, combined with 

 the number of small beetles and other creatures that manage to get 

 down one's back, makes the searching of Angophora not altogether 

 a pleasant operation ; beating Leptospermum is much cleaner work. 

 But the abundance and variety of insect life attracted to these 

 flowers in favourable weather is nothing short of marvellous, and I 

 have seen few, if any, more impressive Entomological sights than that 

 of a good bush of Angoplwra on a sunny morning, with its blossoms 

 fairly bending dowai with the weight of its Coleopterous visitors. 

 Perhaps the most numerous of these individually are the little 

 " chafers " of the genus JPhyllotocus, especially the smooth ochreous 

 and black P. macleayi, Pisch., which comes down into the umbrella 

 when the bushes are shaken, literally in quarts ; indeed, it is usually 

 better not to use the umbrella for Angophora at all, but to search the 

 flowers and select the insects wanted out of the crowd, using a butter- 

 fly net for the capture of the more active species. P. macleayi is at 

 times almost as abundant on Leptospermum as on Angophora, and this 

 is also the case with the Buprestidce, the most attractive and charac- 

 teristic group of beetles met with at this time of year. So well 

 represented in Australia are these beautiful insects, that fully 70 

 species have come under my notice in the Sydney district alone, and 

 an afternoon's work at a good locality, such as Manly or Mosman, 



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