240 



tlie thorax a, large elongate patcli reacHug forward from the 

 base on either side of the central line ; on the elytra a wide 

 irregular vitta commencing at the base a little outside the 

 scutellum, proceeding obliquely till it reaches the suture about 

 a quarter the length of the elytra from the scutellum, and 

 thence continuing down the suture to the apex, where it joins 

 another wide band of the same colour, which runs the whole 

 length of the lateral margin. 



There is a single specimen in the South Australian Museum, 

 but no record exists of its capture. 



Melohasis suaveola, Grerm., is certainly, I think, the same 

 insect as M. verna, Hope, and if I am right in this opinion the 

 former name must be dropped, as Hope's is anterior to it by 

 two years. Germar's statement that the thorax is nearly twice 

 as wide as long was probably not founded on measurement, 

 and is a little exaggerated, the actual proportion being as 6J- 

 to 4. It is a common insect in the Adelaide district, and 1 

 have taken it near Port Lincoln. It varies in size from 3^ 1. to- 

 6 1., and in colour from green to coppery, with all intermediate 

 shades and mixtures ; but the extreme lateral and sutural 

 margins and the scutellum are always coppery, and the under 

 side rarely varies from bright coppery with long sparse white 

 pubescence. The puncturation of the thorax is sometimes 

 more or less obsolete on the disc. 



M. 'i^rofinqiia, Hope. This is said by Mr. E. Saunders 

 (Trans. Ent. Soc, 1868) to be identical with IL Porteri, Hope. 

 As Mr. Saunders had made a personal examination of the types 

 I have little doubt of the [correctness of this determination. 

 At the same time I incline to the opinion that there are 

 several distinct species very closely allied to M. propinqua, al- 

 though I am not at present able to characterise any of them 

 confidently. One obstacle to doing so is the want of a really 

 satisfactory description of Hope's insect, even Mr. Saunders 

 having omitted to mention such important characters as the 

 nature of the striation of the elytra. In the South Australian 

 Museum there is a specimen (its identification I have not at- 

 tained with absolute certainty, but from its position in the 

 cabinet I am tolerably sure of it) which some M.S. notes assert 

 to have been named M. propinqua by Mr. Gr. E. AYaterhouse ; 

 and however that may be, I think it probably is that species. 

 There are also in the Museum specimens which I cannot satis- 

 factorily separate from it, and I have in my own collection 

 others, perhaps identical specifically, taken near Port Lincoln. 

 Examining the series thus constituted I find wide variety in 

 size and some slight difference in the shape and sculpture of 

 the thorax which suggest the idea mentioned above of several 

 very closely allied insects, but they all agree in possessing the 



