33 



sis/utilis without doubt, and comparing E. wentworthensis with 

 these I find that besides the strongly marked color distinctions 

 the latter presents several slight differences ; notably a some- 

 what finer and closer prothoracic puncturation and an evidently 

 more marked sinuation of the hinder part of the lateral margins of 

 that segment causing the hind angles to appear manifestly divari- 

 cate. It is also a consideration of some weight with one who has 

 had experience in the collection of specimens in Australia that 

 the probabilities are distinctly against the occurrence near 

 Sydney (where I have taken wentworthensis) of species that are 

 found in tropical Queensland. As regards the generic position 

 of wentworthensis I accept Dr. Candeze's verdict. Megapenthes 

 and Elater are (as indeed that learned author remarks in his 

 " Mon. des Elater ides''') very close, differing however in the pro- 

 sternal sutures which are impressed in the latter genus and not 

 in the former. In wentworthensis the sutures certainly appear 

 less absolutely simple than in an average Megapenthes, but I 

 think on re-examination they are not sufficiently concave to 

 justify a place in Elater; in any case Dr. Candeze's authority 

 may well determine the matter. 



dascyllim:. 



MACROHELODES. 



M. tasmanicus, sp. nov. Fem. Late ovalis ; nitidus ; supra 

 glaber ; subtus sat dense breviter sericeo-pubescens ; supra 

 flavo-brunneus (elytrorum partibus impressis quam cetera? 

 minus navis), capite prothoraceque indeterminate piceo- 

 notatis, elytris piceo-trimaculatis (maculis versus marginem 

 lateralem prope basin prope mediam partem et pone medium 

 positis), antennis palpisque versus apicem infuscatis ; subtus 

 (coxis exceptis) paullo infuscatus ; capite (hoc inter oculos 

 biimpresso) confertim sat subtiliter, prothorace sparsim 

 leviter nee subtiliter, elytris crebre grosse, punctulatis ; 

 elytrorum sutura tota late leviter convexa sublsevi ; anten- 

 narum gracilium articulis 2° 3° que conjunctis quam 4 US sat 

 brevioribus. Long., 4i 1. ; lat., 3 1. 

 This species is much like M. crassus, Blackb., but can be at 

 once distinguished from it by its more slender and differently 

 formed antennae. In M. crassus the joints beyond the third of 

 the antennae are evidently compressed and each evidently in- 

 creases in width from its base to its apex (the width of the fifth 

 joint at its apex being a trifle more than half its length). In the 

 present species the joints of the antennae are scarcely compressed 

 at all, but very nearly cylindrical (the width of the fifth joint at 

 its apex being not more than a third of its length). I may say 

 that this character is specific not sexual inasmuch as I possess 



