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



Hah. Queensland : Brisbane, Dawson River ; N. S. 

 Wales : Forest Reefs, Jenolan, Tarn worth, Sydney, Gal- 

 ston, Como, Windsor ; Victoria : Benalla, Melbourne ; 

 Tasmania: Hobart, Mount Wellington, Launceston; S. 

 Australia : Adelaide, Port Lincoln ; W. Australia : 

 Swan River, Albany, King George's Sound, Mount 

 Barker. 



Frequently the sides of the prothorax are paler than its 

 disc ; the elytra are sometimes paler than the prothorax, 

 but are often fully as dark ; the appendages are usually 

 paler than the head, the presternum is nearly always paler 

 than the abdomen and the abdomen than the metaster- 

 num ; but specimens of an almost entirely uniform shade 

 of colour (except that the appendages are slightly paler) 

 are by no means uncommon. The prothorax often has a 

 smooth impunctate median line, or this line may be even 

 subcariniform ; in well-kept specimens the long hair 

 usually meets over it. On the prosternum between each 

 coxae and the apical angle is a large fovea, at the bottom 

 of which is a roughly circular flat space (this may be an 

 enormously developed spiracle), there is nothing exactly 

 like it on any other beetle known to me, although there is an 

 approach to it in Tdcpliorus and some of the species having 

 exsertile vesicles. The first joint of all the tarsi is dis- 

 tinctly shorter than the second when seen from below, and 

 from above is often quite invisible ; the claws are long, 

 thin and simple except for a slight basal swelling. 



The insect to my thinking certainly belongs to a different 

 genus to all the species (except nigricans) which follow ; 

 but as Dasytes is a world-wide genus and may include 

 similar forms I have not felt called upon to propose a new 

 genus for its reception. 



The original description of fuscipennis (as also of nigri- 

 cans described at the same time) consists of exactly twelve 

 words, and is certainly insufficient for the positive identi- 

 fication of any species of the genus. 1 have described the 

 above species as fuscipennis, however, as it is so named in 

 several Australian museums, and a specimen of it has been 

 sent tame as such by the Rev. T. Blackburn. The species 

 is variable and probably the most widely distributed of all 

 the Australian Malacodermidae ; it may be taken under 

 the bark of various species of Eucalyptus and often at 

 lights at night-time. 



