80 Major F. J. Sidney Parry on 



Metopodontxis {?) torrescnsis, n. sp. (PI. I. fig. 3 ? , 4 S ■) 

 Cladognathus torresensis (H. Deyr. M. S.j . * 



" In form resembling C. hison, but only half its size, 

 and of a diifercut colour. Somewhat shining, of a deep 

 brown, with a narrow, ill-defined, slightly paler stripe 

 along the sides of the elytra, more apparent towards the 

 shoulders, often obliterated posteriorly; a spot of the 

 same colour towards the middle of the sides of the pro- 

 thorax. Mandibles sliglitly arcuate, each armed inter- 

 nally at the base with a large depressed tubercle as in 

 C. hison. 



Head strongly excavated in front, the excavation 

 limited by a horizontal ridge, which surmounts it and is 

 slightly semicircularly emarginate, and formed by the 

 anterior margin of the forehead. 



Prothorax a trifle wider in front than behind, its an- 

 terior margin strongly bisinuate : anterior angles pro- 

 minent, the posterior obliquely truncate, the truncature 

 dentiform at its anterior angle; sides broadly rounded 

 in front, sinuously contracted behind. 



Elytra parallel, conjointly rounded behind, humeral 

 angles dentiform. 



Punctuation of the male somewhat dense, and rather 

 obsolete on the disc of the elytra ; that of the head and 

 prothorax somewhat sparse, conspicuous on the sides 

 only, on the disc merging into a very fine granulation 

 which imparts to the head, and a trifle less to the pro- 

 thorax, a duller aspect than that of the rest of the body. 



Beneath blackish, very shining. 



$ . As in the other species of the genus, more shining, 

 and more strongly punctate than the male; easily recog- 

 nized by its wide prothorax, parallel at the sides, and 

 with its anterior angles broadly rounded. 



Hah. — Torres Straits, c?, 9 . Coll. Mniszech. 



Ohs. The only female at present received is of a 

 lighter colour than the male, but I consider this to be 

 an individual peculiarity, and not a general character." 



(H. Deyrolle.) 



* For the description of this new and interesting species, and like- 

 wise for others liereafter given, I am indebted to Monsieur Henri 

 Deyrolle, the well-knov.n French Entomologist, and able Curator of 

 Count de Mniszech's rich collection of Coleo;ptcra, wherein are preserved 

 the types of the several species described. It is probable that this insect 

 represents the var. minor, and that in the var. max. the head will prove 

 to be bituberculatc, as in ifctopodontn.t hison. I have, tlierefoi-e, located 

 it in the genus Mctopodontiis ; its true habitat, Count Mniszech informs 

 me, is the extreme northern part of Australia. 



