80 MONOGRAPUICAL E9SAT ON THE 



History of the Genus. 



The genus Astraeus has been established in 1837 by Mrs. Laporte 

 and Gory in behalf of a new insect, which they described under 

 the name of Astraeus ßavopictus. This species remained for a long 

 time the only representative of the genus. In 1857 Mr. Lacordaire 

 published in his standard work « Genera des Coléoptères » an 

 excellent generic description, but it was not before 1868 that Mr. 

 E. Saunders , giving full descriptions of the unrecognizable diagnoses 

 of the Australian Buprestidae described by the Rev. Hope ^ ) , made 

 known that Stig modera SamouelU Hope belongs to the genus Astraeus. 

 The Munich Catalogue (1869) enumerates these two species only, 

 but the Catalogus Buprestidarum (1871) of Mr. E. Saunders contains 

 still a third species, viz. Astraeus uavarcJiis Thoms. This species 

 had been described already in 1856, but Thomson, having over- 

 looked the existance of a genus Astraeus, placed his insect in the 

 genus ConognatJiMS and there it remained unrecognized for so long 

 a period. Two years afterwards (1873) the second volume of 

 the Trans, of the Ent. Soc. of N. S. Wales contained the 

 description (N.B. the description was read 4th December 1871) of 

 Astraeus Mastersi Mc L. ; this species , however , proves to be merely 

 a variety of A. SamouelU. In this state I found the genus, as I 

 attempted two years ago (1886) to contribute to its knowledge by 

 publishing a synopsis and the descriptions of three new species 

 and two varieties , viz. Astraeus aherrans , elongattis , pygmaeus 

 with the var. suhfasciatus and the var. dilutipes of A. SamouelU. 

 There remained some errors in my publication , which were caused 

 firstly , as I knew A. navarclds from description only , and secondly 

 by mistaking a still undesciübed species for A. ßavopictus, which 

 might find its excuse in the great similarity of the pattern on the 

 elytra of both the species and chiefly in the misleading circumstance , 

 that Castelnau and Gory designed the elytral sculpture as « élytres 



1) Alter discussion whicli is reported in Proc. Ent. Soc, 1867, pp. Cix, ex, 

 it has been settled , that Mr. Hope's paper was printed only for private circulation 

 and therefore it must be regarded as an unpublished tract. 



