332 Mr. A. M. Lea's Notes on 



or triangularly excised to Schizostcrnus ; where subtri- 

 angularly produced in the middle to Loxojy/cvrus; and 

 where rounded or truncate to Cadmus. I have not 

 invariably, however, carried this out, as it would in a 

 number of instances separate very closely allied species ; 

 I have, however, given my reasons under such species for 

 not following these general rules. 



Besides the species here noted or described I have 

 critically examined more than fifty others, which for 

 various reasons (but principally on account of their being 

 represented by damaged or unique specimens) I have 

 considered inadvisable to describe. 



It will be seen by the accompanying table that many 

 apparently congeneric species are widely separated, and 

 others apparently belonging to different genera are brought 

 together ; showing how totally unreliable are many of the 

 characters relied upon for distinguishing genera ; for in 

 the table itself I have purposely used the features relied 

 on for separating the genera; and as a rule I have only 

 used colours to distinguish closely allied species, and 

 not often then, preferring to rely on constant structural 

 characters. 



Very useful distinguishing features are to be found in 

 the abdomen in both sexes of many species; and with few 

 exceptions the abdomen has been entirely neglected. The 

 shape of the scutellum is often exceedingly useful in dis- 

 tinguishing closely allied species. The female as a rule 

 is larger and wider, with the eyes smaller and more 

 distant and the head less coarsely punctured ; conse- 

 quently when describing the sexual differences I have 

 seldom considered it necessary to mention these. The 

 antennre are nearly always shorter in the female than 

 in the male, although not always thinner. I have con- 

 sidered it necessary in almost every case to describe the 

 hinder apex of presternum, and the second, third and 

 fifth joints of antennjB. 



Most of the specimens described from the Macleay 

 Museum collection were taken by Mr. Masters, but in 

 that institution the collector's name is seldom attached 

 to the locality label. I have considered it necessary to 

 mention in whose collection I have seen species or varie- 

 ties of which I do not myself possess specimens, as this 

 may be of assistance to future workers. When not other- 

 wise stated the types of the new species remain in my 



