255 



antennae. At the time Blanchard wrote his descriptir.n "an- 

 tennae consisting of eight joints" stood as a generic character 

 of Scitahi, and therefore it might be argued that its reference 

 to that genus implied that its antennae iiave only eight joints. 

 I know no Scitnla with eight-jointed antennae likely (from 

 colouring and habitat) to be this species, but I have before 

 me two males and a female of a Sritala with nine-jointed an- 

 tennae from New South Wales (probably Blanchard's locality), 

 agreeing in size and colouring with the description, and not 

 departing from the description in respect of the few other 

 characters mentioned. My identification of this insect is pro- 

 bably correct. Its distinctive structural characters are indi- 

 cated in the preceding tabulation, and I may here add the 

 information, that in the male the antennal flabellura is slightly 

 bent and slightly longer than the preceding six joints together, 

 the apical ventral segment is only moderately emarginate and 

 feebly elevated behind, and the pygidium strongly convex ; 

 while in the female the antennal flabellum scarcely exceeds in 

 length joints 2-6 together, the apical ventral segment is wide- 

 ly subtruncate behind, and the pygidium is only feebly con- 

 vex. In both sexes the tarsi are sparingly seriate-setulose 

 beneath and (in the male even more than the female) the 

 basal joint of the hind tarsi is notably longer than the second 

 joint. 



S. sericans, Er. I have already aiscussed my identifica- 

 tion of this species (vide supra), and have indicated some of 

 its distinctive characters in the preceding tabulation. I will 

 now add the following remarks : — I have examined a long 

 series of specimens from Tasmania, Victoria, South Austra- 

 lia, and "New South Wales ; the species varies considerably in 

 colouring, Erickson's description of it and Burmeister's des- 

 cription of his S. cenesce/ris (which, as already remarked, may 

 well be a variety of it) representing about the two extremes in 

 this respect ; in all the specimens that I have seen the fore- 

 head is conspicuously and abruptly of dark colour in contrast 

 with the clypeus (this is noted by Erickson, but not by Bur- 

 meister) : the elytra are not at all rugulose and (for a Scifala) 

 are lightly and sparsely punctulate ; the flabellum of the male 

 antennae is notably arched and very elongate, not surpassed in 

 length by that of any Scifala known to me : the apical ven- 

 tral segment of the male is feebly emarginate and feebly ele- 

 vated behind (that of the female widely truncate and scarcely 

 elevated) ; the pygidium is moderately convex, slightly more 

 so in the male than in the female ; the tarsi are seriate-setu- 

 lose beneath : the basal joint of the hind tarsi is evidently or 

 scarcely longer than the second joint ; the hind coxae are 

 quite evidently, but not very much, shorter than the meta- 



