Related Cane Beetles and their Allies. 



By Alan P. Dodd. 



LEPIDIOTA CONSOBRINA GIRAULT. 



This species is so very closely related to L. frenclii that Girault and 

 Dodd i^G) referred larvre from Cooktown to that species, and it "vvas 

 left later to Jarvis (99) and Dodd (91) to point out the distinguishing 

 characters of the larval, pupal, and adult stages, designating the species 

 as Lepidiota No. 683. So close is the relationship between the adults of 

 frenclii and consohrina, that Mr. A. M. Lea, the eminent Australian 

 coleopterist, did not consider the two distinct; he thought that possibly 

 the latter might be a larger race of the former. It was not until 1918 

 that Grirault, in "The Entomologist," of London, gave it the specific 

 name, basing his description chietiy on the differences pointed out by 

 the above writers. 



As mentioned above, Girault and Dodd obtained the larva? from 

 Cooktown; Dodd (91) recorded the species from the neighbourhood of 

 Gordonvale, and adults from Kuranda. Since then its limits have not 

 been widened ; it remains a rare species indeed around Gordonvale, but 

 at Kuranda it appears to be the connnon species, emerging in small 

 numbers in November and December. 



Dodd has recorded a ^wo-year- life-cycle for the species. We have 

 very little data to offer beyond what has already been pul^lished. Four 

 stage III grubs were collected from red volcanic soil in October, 1917. 

 and two were kept in confinement in soil; on 1st February, 1918, the 

 two grubs were transferred to a cage containing a growing cane-plant ; 

 on 20th March the cane-plant was dead, and the grubs were eating the 

 "set." By lltli September, 1918, they had pupated in cells measuring 

 55 mm. by 27 mm., at a depth of 8 inches against the bottom of the cage. 

 Two stage II grubs were found on 27th April, 1918, and kept in soil; 

 on 14th September, one was in a resting-cell in the middle of a hard 

 lump of earth, the cell being regularly shaped, and smooth inside ; both 

 grubs were still in stage II. On 13th November, they had moulted to 

 stage III, and had recommenced feeding. 



In the past four years we have only two records of the adult beetles 

 from the Gordonvale area. One was taken on 5th November, 1917, and 

 the other was found in company with L. frenclii and L. rotkei at dusk 

 on 10th January, 1919. During the last two seasons we have not observed 

 either the grubs or adults. 



LEPIDIOTA CAUDATA BLACKBURN. 



Although in general appearance in the adult stage distinct enough 

 from L. frenclii, the larva is less easily differentiated than that of L. 

 consohrina. L. caudata takes the place of L. frenclii in the scrul) lands 

 around Innisfail, Babinda. Kuranda. the Atherton Tableland, and is even 

 at Ravenshoe, at an elevation of 3.500 feet ; it also occurs at ^Mossman. Its 

 range appears to be strictly limited by the occurrence of the forest land, 

 and we have not found it nearer than 12 miles of Gordonvale, southward. 



