280 



P. piceus, Kirby. lu his mouoo;rapli of tlie genus Mr. 

 Macleay says of tliis species — " I have specimens of it, or 

 closely resembling it, from all parts of N.S. Wales, from 

 S. Australia, and from Queensland," thus indicating his 

 opinion that it is a somewhat variable species, and a doubt 

 whether more than one species may not be included under the 

 name. I think I have, and have seen, a good many specimens 

 attributable to Ivirby's species, and agree with jNIr. Macleay 

 both in his opinion and his doubt. The form that, so far as I 

 have seen, alone occurs in S. Australia would not be at once 

 recognised as identical with that described by Mr. Macleay, 

 although it agrees well enough with Ivirby's original descrip- 

 tion, to which Mr. Macleay has very properly added certain 

 particulars that distinguish what he considers, I believe rightly, 

 to be Kirby's iusect, from allied species since described. It 

 will be of importance, therefore, to S. Australian students to 

 supplement Mr. Macleay's description by saying that Kirby's 

 expression, ''very lightly punctured," in respect of the head 

 and thorax, would be more applicable to S. Australian speci- 

 mens than Mr. Macleay's "scarcely visibly punctured" in 

 respect of the former, and "smooth" in respect of the latter. 

 I have seen no specimens from this colony in which the punc- 

 turation is not quite traceable with a fairly-good lens, and very 

 few in which it is not, though very lightly impressed (as Kirby 

 calls it), nevertheless very distinct. In South Australian 

 specimens, moreover, there is generally a tendency in the 

 fourth, eighth, twelfth, and sixteenth interstices on the elytra 

 to be slightly more evident than the rest ; and Mr. Macleay's 

 expression, " last joint of the antennae red," is a little mis- 

 leading, for though it is true that this joint is as a rule more 

 decidedly red than the rest, yet the last three or four joints, 

 and sometimes the whole antennae, show a decided tendency 

 towards a reddish colour. Some specimens are in a varying 

 degree much larger (up to 11^1.), narrower, and more parallel 

 than others from which they do not seem to differ otherwise. 

 I take this to be a sexual difference similar to that noted by 

 Mr. Pascoe in his P. dispar. 



P. planus, Blessig. Concerning this species, Mr. Macleay 

 merely remarks that he has never seen a description of it. As 

 I have a copy of Blessig's memoir it will be well to supply the 

 following abbreviated translation of his description. 



" Oblong oval, sub-depressed, pitchy, head punctured, pro- 

 duced on the sides, apical four joints of the antennae dilated ; 

 margin of the thorax and of the elytra dilated, obscurely red, 

 impunctate ; thorax transverse very finely punctured ; elytra 

 closely striate-punctate, interstices flat. Long. 16*5 mm., lat. 

 8-5 mm." 



