85 



at certainty on the question of their sex. In both the species 

 alluded to above the male is a somewhat narrower and more 

 parallel insect than the female, with the iiabellum of the antenn?e 

 a little longer and the pygidium decidedly shorter, more trans- 

 verse, and more closely scaly and punctured ; in both, moreover, 

 the feeble costse on the elytra are evidently better defined in the 

 male than in the female, the elytra of the latter sex being more 

 confusedly punctured and less nitid than in the former. 



L. caudata, sp. nov. ^ Sat parallela ; piceo-ferruginea, subiri- 

 descens ; sat nitida ; supra sparsissime subtus confertissime 

 albido-squamulata ; j)ectore f ulvo-hirsuto ; clypeo perbrevi, in 

 medio reflexo-emarginato ; prothorace fortiter convexo sat 

 transverso antice angustato, lateribus pone medium angulato- 

 ampliatis postice vix sinuatis, angulis posticis acutis ; pygidii 

 margine postico in medio acute minute dentato ; tibiis anticis 

 tridentatis. $ Minus parallela ; hand iridescens ; minus 

 nitida; elytris paullo crebrius punctulatis. Long., 12 1. ; 

 lat., S 61 2 6| 1. 



The sharp little tooth into which the hinder outline of the 

 . pygidium is abruptly drawn out in the middle at once dis- 

 tinguishes this species from all the previously described Austra- 

 lian LepidiotcE (unless Froggalti, MacL, which I have not seen, 

 but which is a very much larger insect). The third joint of the 

 antennae (as in most of the Australian LejndioUe) is longer than the 

 second and than the fourth"^ ; in the male the flabellum is as long 

 as the preceding 5 joints together, in the female a little shorter. 

 In the male the pygidium is about a ^ wider at its base than it 

 is long down the middle, and is punctured closely and strongly ; in 

 the female the leng-th is scarcely different from the width, and the 

 puncturation is feebler and more sparing. The suture is convex, 

 and there are two somewhat less defined costfe on each elytron — 

 all these convexities being stronger in the male than in the 

 female. The prothorax is about ^ again as wide as it is long 

 down the middle, its base being half again as wide as its front, 

 which is bisinuate and strongly margined. The whole upper 

 surface (except the elytral costse) is rather strongly and evenly 

 and fairly closely punctured ; the white scales being extremely 

 small and not filling up the punctures are very inconspicuous, 

 and at the first glance the upper surface appears glabrous (I do 

 not think that the male example before me is at all abraded). 

 The hairs on the breast are not of a snowywhite colour (as they 

 are in Dartvini, Blackb.), but are pale fulvous. 



*This is at variance with the characters of Lepidiota, as quoted by M. 

 Lacordaire lq the " Genera des Coleopt." 



