116 Mr. Arthur M. Lea's Revision of the 



Mr. Blackburn, in comparing vihex with nohilitatus, 

 pointed out certain differences in colour, but these are all 

 unreliable ; and as regards the other features, the punctures 

 of the elytra are different in different specimens, and their 

 appearance is frequently altered by the elytral granules or 

 subgranules being advanced almost to the base (especially 

 in the males) ; and also by the different rates of shrinkage 

 in individuals and the amount of gloss at the base. Tas- 

 manian males appear to me to have the hind tibiae arched 

 very strongly, certainly no more than in the males of 

 imperialis and decidedly less than in apterus. The elytra 

 in pinned specimens assume very different shapes to what 

 they do in carded ones, but scarcely any two specimens 

 selected at random agree in the final shape assumed both 

 by the prothorax and elytra. 



Specimens before me vary in length from 6 to 13 mm. 

 (or, including the abdomen of gravid females, 16 mm.). 



The flavous marking on the clypeus of the male is usually 

 continuous from eye to eye, but it is occasionally completely 

 interrupted in the middle,* whilst it is even sometimes 

 connected with the red basal portion by a rather indistinct 

 reddish streak. The base of the head in the male is rarely 

 entirely black, usually there is a wide patch which on its 

 front margin is usually quite straight, sometimes it is 

 bilobed or trilobed, whilst in others it is distinctly tri- 

 angular. The head of the male is usually, but not 

 always, wider than the prothorax, but is always wider 

 (frequently very considerably so) than that of the female. 

 The antennae also vary in length, in some males from 

 Western Australia extending almost to apex of elytra ; in 

 the more normal forms, however, they are shorter, whilst 

 they are always shorter in the females than in the males. 



It is to be noted that the shape of the disc of the 

 prothorax, and even the outlines, is subject to alteration 

 after death, through contraction taking place irregularly. 

 The apex is always bilobed, although sometimes only 

 perceptibly so. With age it often turns to a dirty 

 (often oily-looking) red. A variety rather common in 

 Tasmania has, in both sexes, a large blackish blotch of 

 variable shape and size (but always sharply defined) on 



* Usually llie dark portion is advanced in the middle of the 

 clypeus, being sometimes entire and sometimes bilobed, or even in the 

 form of two spots, but in a few specimens it is continuous to the 

 apex. 



