18 



Further Notes on Australian Coleoptera 

 WITH Descriptions of New Genera and 

 Species. 



By the Rev. T. Blackburn, B.A. 



[Read May 3, 1898.] 



XXIII. 



LAMELLICORNES. 



MELOLONTHiNi (Tribe). 



This aggregate of genera appertains, in Lacordaire's arrange- 

 ment, to the second "Legion" of the family ^^Lamellicornes" on 

 account of some of the abdominal stigmata being placed on the 

 ventral segments. Lacordaire divides this second " Legion" into 

 *' Tribes," of which the Melolonthini is one and is distinguished 

 by those of the abdominal stigmata which are placed on the ven- 

 tral segments not diverging strongly from the line in which the 

 dorsal and ventral segments meet. The "Tribe" Melolonthini is 

 divided by Lacordaire into " sub-tribes," of which, so far as I 

 know, only four are represented in Australia, — viz. Systellopides 

 (separated since Lacordaire's time from his sub-tribePac%po(^ic?es) 

 Sericides, Sericoides, and Melolontliides (true). The Systellopide, 

 are distinguished from the rest of the above-named sub-tribes by 

 the atrophy of the maxillary lobe in combination with the posi- 

 tion of the labrum on the same plane with the clypeus ; while 

 the true Melolonthides differ from the remaining two by the front 

 cox^e being (not conical and prominent but) transverse. 

 Lacordaire distinguishes the Serkides and Sericoides by the 

 relation between their clypeus and labrum, the latter being in the 

 Sericides intimately connected (soude) with the clypeus so as to 

 be "indistinct" while in the Sericoides it is "free." Here it is 

 to be noted (as Lacordaire remarks) that in some genera (e.g. 

 J)iphucephala) the clypeus is divided by a suture which gives its 

 front part the appearance of a free labrum, and it must be 

 admitted that there are genera in which it is exceedingly difficult 

 to say that the piece in question is not the real labrum. As an 

 instance I would mention Phyllotocus. Comparing an example 

 of this genus with some of the Systellopides I cannot discos er any 

 difference of structure justifying the assertion that the front 

 piece of the head is a part of the clypeus in one and the labrum 

 in the other. It must be remembered doubtless that Lacordaire 



