29 



E. longior, sp. nov. Sat elongata ; sat opaca ; picea, antennis 

 palpis pedibus et corpore subtus rufescentibus ; setulis 

 brevibus gracilibus adpressis, et pilis erectis elongatis sparsis, 

 testaceis vestita ; capite antice truncato elevato-reflexo, 

 lateribus sinuatis ; prothorace sat transverse, antice fortiter 

 angustato crebre rugulose sat grosse punctulato, lateribus 

 fortiter rotundatis, angulis anticis sub-acutis minus promi- 

 nulis posticis rotundato-obtusis, basi rotundata; elytris 

 obscure seriatim punctulatis, lineis 3 obscurioribus vix ele- 

 vatis instructis ; tibiis anticis extus 3-dentatis (dentibus 

 inferioribus 2 approximatis, a 3° sat remotis) ; tarsorum 

 posticorum articulo basali quam 2''* multo longiori ; ungui- 

 culis singulis ad basin appendiculis singulis armatis. Long. 

 311. ; Lat. Ifl. 

 Larger and more elongate than U. gracilis, Waterh., with the 

 prothorax much mora coarsely punctulate ; the clypeus consider- 

 ably more reflexed in front (causing the labium to appear less 

 nearly in contact with the edge of the clypeus when the head 

 is looked at from beneath), and with its sides more sinuate. 

 N. Queensland ; sent by Mr. Cowley. 



SERicoiDES (Sub-tribe). 



This sub-tribe is by far the most numerously represented 

 among the Australian Melolonthini, and moreover presents extra- 

 ordinary difficulties in classification, owing to the presence of the 

 most remarkable structural differences between insects that apart 

 from those differences are not even very notably distinct from 

 each other as species. These differences are found in the number 

 of joints in the antennae, the structure of the antennal club, the 

 form of the labrum and the hind coxae, and even, to some extent, 

 the structure of the claws. To regard such differences as generic 

 (which one would do unhesitatingly in the case of almost any 

 other Coleoptera) would require an enormous multiplication of 

 the genera known at present and would split up numerous genera 

 that are among the most natural aggregates in the whole coleo- 

 pterous series. For example, to regard those differences as generic 

 would involve the formation of at least nine new genera out of 

 Heteronyx, than which in a natural arrangement a more homo- 

 geneous aggregate could hardly be found, and changes almost as 

 sweeping would be required in nearly all the other large genera. 



However at present the sub-tribe is in a state of extreme con- 

 fusion. Numerous genera have been formed since the publication 

 of Lacordaire's work, but their diagnoses are scattered over a 

 wide field of literature and so far as I know have not been 

 systematically classified. The result of this is that anyone hav- 

 ing new species to describe is faced with the greatest difficulty in 



