104 



tiiiuata ; metasterno fere Isevi, parte raediana valde insig- 



niter planata ; segmento ventrali basali utrinque impresso ; 



tibiis anticis externa 4-dentatis. Long., f 1.; lat., f 1. (vix). 



This minute species does not differ greatly on its general upper 



surface from the preceding {P. saucius, Blackb.) but is smaller 



and a little wider and more depressed, with the sculpture a trifle 



feebler. Its presternum is evidently wider and its metasternum 



and pygidium are entirely differently sculptured. 



N. Queensland (Mr. Cowley). 



TRIBALUS. 



This name is printed " triballus '' in Masters' Catalogue. I 

 have not Erichson's original diagnosis for reference, but I find it 

 called Tribalus, Er., by Lacordaire, de Marseul, and Lewis. De 

 Marseul gives a derivation for the word as he spells it which 

 involves a quite different meaning from that of Triballus. 



SAPRINUS. 



The species of this genus that have been recorded as found in 

 Australia (including Gnathoneus, which De Marseul regarded as 

 a subgenus of Saprinus) appear under 14 names. Of these the 

 following are not sufficiently described for identification : — ater, 

 Macl ; australis, Boisd.; gayndahensis, Macl.; and Mastersi, 

 Macl. I have an example of *S'. ater, named on the extremely 

 reliable authority of Mr. Masters, which does not seem to differ, 

 except somewhat in color, from Northern Australian specimens 

 that I have no doubt are S. speciosus, Er. It is impossible even 

 to guess at the identity of S. australis. The description of 

 S. gayndahettsis does not show any distinction from S. cyaneus, 

 Fab. *S'. Mastersi may be a good species ; I cannot fit the 

 description to any species before me, but it is too vague for any 

 certainty. 



Between S. cyaneus and S. Icetus there seems to be almost 

 inextricable confusion. As far as I can see the earliest use of 

 both names was for the same insect, viz.: — cya^ieus, Fab. (1775) 

 and Icetus, Er. (1834). But in the interval Paykull (1811) de- 

 scribed a different Saprinus under the name cya-neus, and 

 Erichson (1834) also described it under the same name. Still 

 later De Marseul (1853) described it under the name Icetus, Er., 

 and then (1859) stated that he had examined the type of 

 S. IcEtus, Er., and discovered that it was not the insect he had 

 described under that name, but was identical with what he 

 regarded as cyaneus, Fab. 



This leaves S. cyaneus, Payk., without a name, inasmuch as 

 S. Icetus applied to it by De Marseul was a nom. praeocc, being 

 (at the time De Marseul used it) a synonym of S. cyaneus. Fab. 

 I propose (below) the name Australasia^ for the Saprimos de- 



