Australian Sugar-cane Beetles and their 



Allies. 



By J. F. Illixgwortii. 



THE GREYBACK CANE BEETLE. LEPIDODERMA ALBOHIRTUM 



WATERHOUSE. 



THE NAME. 



The type locality of this species is Bowen, North Queensland, the 

 .species having been named by C. 0. Waterhoiise in 1875/"' Neverthe- 

 less, subsequently there appears to have been considerable confusion, 

 especially in Queensland, as to the correct terminology for this insect. 



Keviewing the literature on the subject, I found that R. E. Turner 

 (6),t speaking at the Agricultural Conference held at ]\Iackay on 23rd 

 and 24th September, 1892, used the name Lcpidoderma alho-liirta. And, 

 a year later, Sydney Olliff (8) mentioned Lepidodcrma alho-lnrtum 

 among the beetles infesting sugar-cane in New South Wales. The next 

 I'eference that I wa,s able to locate was the excellent l)ulletin l)y II. Tryon 

 (19) on the Grub Pest, published in 1895. He referred to this species 

 as Lcpidiofa aJhohivta, and, further along on the same page, he used the 

 name L. squanudafa for it, as he likewise did on the title-page. In his 

 subsecpient writings, however, I found that ]\Ir. Tryon used the name 

 L. (dbolnrta ; and later changed the form of the specific name, in his 

 annual reports for 1907, 1908, 1909, to aJho-hirtum. In Australian 

 Insects, 1907, on page 157, AV. W. Froggatt used the correct terminology, 

 as did also Rev. T. Blackburn, in his paper published in the Transactions 

 of the Royal Society of South Australia. 1912, p. 52-3. On 30tli January, 

 1912, A. A. Girault wrote to the United States National Aluseum for 

 advice on the name of this species, and Dr. E. A. Schwarz, the eminent 

 custodian of Coleoptera, replied, 29th March, 1912, as follows: — 



"Lcpidiota a1h(diirta is no doubt the beetle described as Lcpidoderma 

 aJhohirtum by AVaterhouse in Tr. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1875, p. 202. The 

 genus Lepidodcnna being closely allied to L( pidiota is probably not 

 recognised as valid by the present Australian Colei)i)terists, but I have 

 no means of speaking definitely about the subject, because the literature 

 on Australian Coleoptera is at present not at hand. ^Moreover we do 

 not have the above species in the collection of the U. S. Nat, ]\Iuseum 

 and should be glad to get specimens. The type locality is given by 

 Waterhouse as Port Bowen and no other locality is mentioned by him. 

 The type or type specimens are in the British Museum. I regret very 

 much that I cannot give further information on this beetle." 



Subsequently, nevertheless, Girault continued to designate the 

 species as Lcpidiofa cdbohirta ; furthermore, it was so determined for 



* Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1875, pp. 201-2. 



t The numbers in parentheses refer to the bibliography. 



