296 



mination, but may say that it seems to me unlikely to be cor- 

 rect. The species that I have called "//. obesa, Burm. ( ? Boisd.)" 

 does not, so far as I know, occur in Tasmania, but that which 

 I believe to be jjectoralis, Blanch., is found there, and is likely 

 to be identical with tasmanica, H. and J., which latter is 

 the older name. But I have not before me sufficient evi- 

 dence to decide this point. 



The next author who described species of Haplonycha 

 was Blanchard (Cat. Coll. Ent., 1850), who may be regarded 

 as the founder of the genus, in which he placed seven species, 

 three of which ( striatella, iridesctns, and ciliata) I exclude 

 from the genus on account of their elytra not being geminate- 

 striate. Another of his species (ohscuricornis) is so vaguely 

 described that the striation of its elytra can scarcely be in- 

 ferred, but the implication is that it is not geminate, and I 

 have not much doubt of the insect being a Frenchella. I take 

 it, therefore, that Blanchard's obesa, scutalis, and j^ect oralis 

 only can stand in Hajjlonycha. H. obesa, Blanch., I have 

 already discussed above. H. "pectoralis, Blanch., I identify 

 without much doubt with a species common in New South 

 Wales. H. scutalis, Blanch., is scarcely distinguished from 

 pectoralis except by slight colour differences, and a scutellar 

 character to which I attribute but little value. ■ I think I 

 know the insect, but doubt whether it is more than a variety 

 of pectoralis. Besides the species which he called Haplonycha, 

 Blanchard also described two as ColpochilcE (crassiventris and 

 punctulata), which must be placed in Haplonycha as includ- 

 ing Colpocliila. Functidata is a well-known insect from New 

 South Wales, but crassiventris is less easily identified. Bur> 

 meister says that it is probably identical with his H. Roei (in 

 which case its name has priority), and in this I agree with 

 him. The principal difficulty seems to be the much greater 

 size quoted for crassiventris, but it almost disappears when it 

 is remembered that in all Blanchard's measurements a milli- 

 metre requires to be taksn as one-thirtieth of an inch. Bear- 

 ing this in mind, and remembering also that the Swan River 

 is the habitat quoted for both crassiventris and Roei, it seems 

 fairly safe to treat the latter name as a synonym of the for- 

 mer. 



The next author after Blanchard to describe spe- 

 cies of Baplonycha was Burmeister (1855), who de- 

 scribed ten species, three of which (tasmanica, Germ., 

 nif/osa, Burm., and ciliata, Boisd.), cannot remain in 

 the genus, the first being a Pachyr/astra, and the 

 other two probably identical with each other, and almost cer- 

 tainly belonging to Frenchella. I have identified five of the 



