BELATED CANE BEETLES AND TIIEIE ALLIES. 71 



At Greenliills on lltli January, at 9.50 a.m. a pair was noticed on 

 a cane-leaf, about to couple. They were captured and held on the finger, 

 but this disturbance did not affect their mating. The male clung to the 

 ])ack of the female, moving to and fro, and at the same time stroking his 

 legs along her side ; after a minute or so he secured nnion. balancing 

 outward and backward on his leg,s, but not letting go and hanging. The 

 action lasted for a minute, when they separated and flew away. 



XYLOTRUPES AUSTRALICUS THOMSON. 



The great, lumbering Elephant Beetle is well known to everyone in 

 the coastal districts of Queensland. They occur plentifully on Poin- 

 cianas, on the trunk and branches, feeding on exuded juice after the 

 manner of the true Stag Beetles (Lueanida?). During the summer 

 months occasional ones are attracted to light, and their unwieldy flight 

 is ea.sily recognised. Besides the Foincianay two other feeding-trees are 

 known, namely, the white cedar {Melia conipnsita) and Glocliidion 

 fcrdinandi. 



The fat sluggish grubs can always lie unearthed in refuse heaps of 

 decaying vegetable matter, and they habitually feed on this decomposed 

 material. They are in no way injurious, and are found in canefields in 

 isolated cases. 



HORONOTUS OPTATUS SHARP. 



Very little is known of the habits of H. optatiis; it breeds in the 

 almo.st pure sand in the bed of the ^lulgrave River. Adults are now and 

 then collected at lights during the first four months of the year. One 

 flew to light at :\Iossman, 8th April, 1920. 



SEMANOPTERUS DEPRESSIUSCULUS MACLEAY. 



As with Horonotus, Das)jg)tathns, Isodon, &c., the habits of the 

 beetles are obscure. The grubs live, around Gordonvale, in alluvial, 

 sandy-loam rublush heaps; Init they occur in the heavy-loam scrub soils 

 of the Babinda area. In some of the paspalum paddocks at Kavenshoe, 

 3,500 feet, on 1st ]March, 1921, grubs in stage III were dug up beneath 

 the grass, and the beetles themselves were cjuite common beneath logs in 

 the fields. Two of these grubs were kept in confinement, and when 

 examined on 23rd April a pupa was obtained and a beetle in its cell. 

 Possibly, like Isodon, development is very rapid, and there may be more 

 than one brood in a year. Adults have also been collected in August, 

 October, and December. 



DASYGNATHUS AUSTRALIS BOISDUVAL. 



A common and widely distributed species that has been met with 

 everywhere in sugar-cane districts from ]\Iossman to the Tweed River of 

 New South Wales. The beetles are seldom observed; the few that have 

 been collected were mostly either dug out of the soil or picked up behind 

 ploughs, from 21th September to 6th December. The following note 

 by ]\Ir. Girault from our files is given : — 



"Roaming through a canefield at Gordonvale about dusk on 29th 

 November, 1911, I would occasionally observe a smooth round hole 

 leading down into the moist soil (dark loam; rain fell during most of 

 this day, once a hard shower), with a small pile of earth around the 



