37 



bending obliquely upward, and viewed from above looks like a 



protruding tongue. 



G. labialis, sp, nov. Elongato-ovatus ; nitidus ; supra fere 

 glaber, subtus in sternis femoribusque pilosus ; piceo-niger, 

 antennis palpisque rufis, pedibus (prjesertim coxis anticis) 

 plus minusve rufescentibus ; clypeo minus crebre, capita 

 postice confertim (hoc exemplorum visorum in medio fovea 

 leviter impresso), prothorace sparsim (ad latera magis 

 crebre), elytris sat sparsim, parum fortiter punctulatis ; 

 pygidio in medio sublaevi, ad latera sparsius subtiliter 

 punctulato ; clypeo antice rotundato sat reHexo ; prothorace 

 postice marginato, sat transverso, lateribus sat fortiter 

 arcuatis, angulis anticis acutis minus productis posticis 

 rotundato-obtusis, basi utrinque sinuata ; elytris in disco 

 distincte striatis (sed striis minus perspicue geminatis), 

 latera versus minus distincte striatis (sed striis perspicue 

 geminatis) ; tarsorum posticorum articulo basali quam 2°^ 

 sat breviori. Long. 6J — 71. ; lat. 341. 

 W. Australia ; taken by Mr. Lea at Mt. Barker. 



SCITALA. 



In Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W., 1890, pp. 539-545, T wrote at 

 some length on the claims of this name to retention, — it having 

 been substituted by Burmeister and Lacordaire for Sericesthis. I 

 need not now repeat the arguments I then employed, but merely 

 observe that I contended for the claims of Sericesthis to be re- 

 tained in preference to Scitala. In doing so I followed the dis- 

 tinguished authors quoted above in the assumption that the type 

 of Sericesthis is congeneric with the type of Scitala. Lately 

 however I have seen reason to consider that assumption unwar- 

 ranted. I take it that the type of Sericesthis is the species for 

 which Boisduval first used the name, — viz. S. geminata, — and 

 that is undoubtedly a later name for Melolontha pruinosa, Dalm. 

 Now the type of Erichson's genus Scitala is S. sericans, Er., a 

 species which I am not sure that I know, but I have before me 

 numerous species undoubtedly congeneric with it (judging by the 

 generic diagnosis), and there appear to me sufficient reasons for 

 the conclusion that they are not congeneric with Sericesthis 

 geminata, Boisd. Erichson states that in Scitala the apical 

 joint of the labial palpi is obconic and incrassate (as it is in the 

 numerous species referred to above) and he so figures it. But in 

 S. geminata, Boisd., it is elongate, cylindric, and very slender. 

 The shape of that joint is a very important character which that 

 eminent specialist Dr. Sharp relies upon as a leading distinction 

 of his genus Anodontonyx. I find, moreover, that all the species 

 known to me congeneric with S. sericans have the base of the 



