A J5EETLE THAT TARKS IN I5ALLAST 



By F. P. DODD. 



(KURANDA.) 



Read before the Royal Society of Queensland, November 21 thy 



1912. 



For some years past, when collecting Coleoptera on 

 the ranges in this and the Herberton districts, my sons 

 and 1 have frequently taken the females of the large and 

 variable buprest, Sfigmodera regia, on the ground, always 

 on hot days and when there was some dry dust or fine 

 sand, and, for soane time, we were puzzled as to the meaning 

 of its presence there, seeing that the. beetle feeds upon 

 the honey of various Eucalyptus trees. As the yellow 

 beetles, and the yellow bands on the varieties gradually 

 changed to dull brown which is often the case with yellow 

 colored beetles I usually eviscerated all of that color, 

 in the hope of preventing such undesirable change. In 

 operating upon Regia I often noticed and removed two or 

 three little sacs of fine sand at the extreme tip of the abdo- 

 men, but only in the females, invariably in those examples 

 which were rather old and contained but few eggs. This 

 peculiar habit warranted a little investigation, and, as we 

 found other specimens on the ground, we endeavoured 

 to ascertain how the sand was taken in. Though we 

 seldom succeeded in approaching closely to the insects 

 when on the ground, our presence of course alarming them, 

 we were able to ascertain that they curve the abdomen 

 close to the ground, and that the first pair of legs appear 

 to be actively engaged in kicking up the dust, the body 

 at the same time working backward and forward on the 

 • other legs. Whether the sand is sucked up by the abdomen- 



