ASTRAEUS PYGMAEUS. 179 



Habitat Queensland. — In mus. nostro. 



Head blue in front, purple brown on the vertex; thorax 

 cyaneous, violaceous in the middle and greenish at the 

 sides ; elytra bluish-black , each with four yellow spots , 

 the first at the base near the suture , the second below 

 this before the middle , the third below the shoulder , 

 touching the outer margin , and the fourth midway be- 

 tween the second spot and the apex , touching neither 

 the suture nor the outermargiu. Underside and legs cya- 

 neous , the tips of the tibiae and the first joint of the 

 tarsi flavous. 



Head strongly punctured in front, more sparsely on the 

 vertex , with a longitudinal smooth line in the middle. 



Prothorax densely but finely punctured , the punctures 

 become however larger towards the sides ; the front margin 

 straight, the sides narrowed towards the top, the base 

 deeply bisinuate. 



Elytra as broad as the thorax at the base , gradually 

 narrowed posteriorly; the apices strongly divergent, armed 

 with a long and acute sutural spine and a short acute 

 one just above it. Each elytron with nine sharp ridges on 

 the disk and with two deep striae at the outermargin , 

 the interstices between the ridges deepened , those between 

 the striae subconvex , and deeply but sparsely punctured. 



Beneath thickly covered with minute punctures and with 

 a few scattered hairs. 



The variety suhfasciata differs from the type in having 

 the second and third elytral spot confluent; the single 

 specimen I possess has the head and the thorax more 

 greenish with the vertex and the base of the thorax 

 blackish. 



This species is very close to Astraeus Samouelli Hope 

 and, notwithstanding the great difference in size and the 

 want of the fifth elytral spot, I was at first inclined to 

 regard it as a minor variety of that species ; the position 

 of the apical spot, however, does not allow to unite 

 them. 



Notes from ttie Leyden IVEiiseura, Vol. VIII. 



