249 



NEOCUEIS. 



I have not seen tlie original diagnosis of this genus by M. 

 Deyrolle, but the characters are mentioned (probably quoted) 

 by M. Fairmaire in the Ann. de la Soc. Ent. de France for 

 1877. These characters are eminently unsatisfactory. One 

 of them is that the head is more widely and deeply excavated 

 than in Ciiris, and yet M. Fairmaire makes a section in the 

 genus with the head not excavated at all. Another character, 

 the less prominence of the labrum, is extremely variable. 

 There remain (to distinguish it from Curis) smaller size, a dif- 

 ference in the shape of the front of the prothorax, and a pro- 

 portional shortness of the basal joint of the tarsi. Of these 

 the last only appears to me a good distinction. The following 

 characters, however, will distinguish the genus from all other 

 Australian genera of the sub-family, and so enable the Aus- 

 tralian collector to recognise it, viz., poriferous depressions 

 of the antennae terminal (as in Curis, Melolasis, &c.) ; hind 

 tarsi much shorter than their tibiae, the basal joint not (or 

 scarcely) so long as the following two together ; head more or 

 less impressed between the eyes ; prothorax bisinuate behind ; 

 apical part of elytra serrulate, simply and separately rounded 

 behind (in all species yet described) ; pygidium concave, ex- 

 posed ; apical ventral segment evenly rounded off {i.e., not 

 produced into spines at the apex) . 



The following two descriptions are founded on species that 

 clearly appear to be hitherto undescribed members of this 

 genus. I have before me several others allied to, but probably 

 distinct from, some of those described by M. Fairmaire (loc. 

 cit.), but as M. Fairmaire's descriptions are not precise in 

 respect of the proportional length and breadth of the insects 

 or of their several segments it is impossible to be certain as to 

 their distinctness. 



J^. Fairmairei, sp. nov. Lata; coeruleo-nigra, subtus Isetius 

 coerulea ; fortius nee crebre punctulata ; capite sat fortiter 

 impresso ; elytris mox post basin fortiter impressis. Long. 

 2 1. Lat. 1 1. 



A very short, wide, flattish species, even more so than 

 C. discoflava, Fairm., the anterior two-thirds of the elytra 

 almost parallel, or rather with sides very slightly concave, the 

 body in front of and behind that part somewhat equally nar- 

 rowed. The head is a little more transverse than in 

 AT. discoflava, with the clypeus scarcely so distinctly emar- 

 ginate in front ; it is moderately channelled longitudinally, 

 the channel being deepest in the middle so as to appear a little 

 f oveiform ; the puncturation is a little less close than in 

 discoflava, and a little inclined to run into rows. The pro- 



