Australian and Tasmanian Malacodcrmidae. 163 



partly red. Very sparsely clothed witli long brownish hair and in 

 addition with sparse whitish pubescence, dense only on legs. 



Head smooth in front, on each side of middle a rather small but 

 very distinct and rounded fovea, behind these a deep semicircular 

 impression extending from side to side. Antennae short; 1st joint 

 moderately stout, shorter than the three following combined, 2nd * 

 simple but slightly longer than 3rd, 3rd-9th gradually decreasing 

 in length and serrate internally. Prothorax moderately transverse 

 angles obliquely cut off, apex trilobed, the median lobe small and 

 somewhat rounded; with two transverse impressions, the basal very 

 shallow, the apical deep, wide, very distinct and strongly inter- 

 rupted at its middle (behind which there is a feeble depression on 

 the disc) ; sparsely and minutely punctate, the sides moderately 

 distinctly punctate. Elytra almost parallel-sided ; with moderately 

 dense, rather small, and evenly distributed punctures, except that 

 towards the apex they become somewhat smaller. Second joint of 

 front tarsi large, curved at apex and tipped with black. 



Length 5 J mm. 



Rai. Victoria: Macedon (H. J. Carter). The an- 

 tennae simple in the male (the only sex known to me) is 

 in itself a remarkable feature, but this is added to by the 

 very unusual sculpture of the head and prothorax (the 

 median lobe of the prothorax is not directed over the head 

 as in armicollis). Previous to examining the sexual 

 characters I thought the type was possibly the female of 

 armicollis (in colour and general appearance the two 

 species agree rather closely), but both the tarsi and 

 abdomen are essentially masculine. 



Laius orthodoxus, n. sp. {Figs. 62, 145, 146.) 



(J. Almost of an orange-red colour; head (except in front and 

 the sides in front of eyes), a large subquadrate prothoracic patch 

 (continuous almost to base but terminated some distance from the 

 apex), scutellum, under surface (except presternum, middle of basal 

 segment of abdomen and extreme apex of the other), palpi and 

 portions of legs, black ; antennae pallid except for a black spot on 

 the first joint. Sparsely clothed with long straggling hairs, head 

 and legs in addition with whitish pubescence. 



Head much narrower, with the eyes less projecting than usual ; 



* This is really the 3rd joint, the true 2nd in the majority of 

 species of the genus being more or less atrophied, but in the speci- 

 men before me it is distinctly visible on one of the antennae 

 although not on the other. 



M 2 



