324 



There are other différences between the two species; in Ihe 

 punctures, in the médian carina and in the tibiœ. Only that 

 M"" Masters int'orrned me that be receivcd the name acerbus i'rom 

 M"" Pascoe himself, I should hâve regarded bis spécimens as being 

 wrongly named of representing an andescribed species. It woned 

 IheiTtbre be désirable if the type (now in the British Muséum) 

 could be examined and commented upon, especially as to the 

 intermediate carinte of the rostruVn of the apical tubercles of elytra. 



Leptops biordinatus Blackb. Var. raucus Blackb. 



I hâve three spécimens (two from the South Austrahan Muséum, 

 the other from M. Blackburn) of this species; it is a rough looking 

 insect and decidedly variable. I also hâve a spécimen, on loan from 

 the South Australian Muséum, and apparently a co-type of raucus, 

 and cannot regard it as other than a variety of biordinatus. The 

 différences from biordinatus mentioned by Blackburn are noticeable 

 in the spécimen before me, buta much greater divergence between 

 spécimens exists in the common tribulus, both as regards the 

 comparative widths of .elytra and liability of first row of tubercles 

 to become carinated towards base, and in fact most of the species 

 of the genus are more or less variable, apart from the frequently 

 great sexual variation. 



There are also two other spécimens before me which I refer to 

 biordinatus, and which are even more divergent from the typical 

 form than is raucus. Of thèse one from Kalgoorlie (belonging to 

 M. Froggatt) is apparently a female, and is only eight lines long; it 

 bas the fifth interstice distinctly costate to where it joins in with 

 the seventh,and atabout its middle has two indistinct subtubercular 

 élévations; the seventh interstice has seven tubercles on one side 

 and eight on the other. The»lines surrounding the elytral punctures 

 are almost regular, although somewhat obscured by clothing. Its 

 greatest width is at about the basai third of the elytra. The 

 prothoracic carina is distinctly thickened in the middle and the 

 pectoral armature is rather more obtuse than in the normal form. 



The other spécimen is an enormous maie from Norseman, it 

 measures 16 lines long(l). Its rostrum below the scrobe is supplied 

 with five or six subparallel irregular costye directed downwards, 

 the groove near the apex of the side of the rostrum is scarcely 

 traceable, and the médian carina of the upper surface has a feeble 

 carina on each side of it near its apex. The prothorax is densely 



(1) An appropriate female would probably therefore be the largest Leptops iu 

 Australia. 



