the species with the head at its widest close to the base fall in the 

 group called " II." 



Mountains of Victoria. 



PiEDERUS. 



P. Jlet/ricki, spec. nov. Apterus; nullo modo parallelus; niger ; 



prothorace rufo, elytris cyaneis ; oculis parvis ; elytris basin 



versus angustatis, prothorace haud longioribus ; abdomine 



retrorsum sat dilatato ; ca^tera fere ut F. Gruenticollis, Germ. 



Long., 3^1. ; lat., f 1. 



The insect is at its widest across the hind body. The smallness 



of the eyes will at once separate it from the various forms of 



P. cruenticollis ; the difference of size may be stated thus — in 



cruenticoUis the hindmost point of the eye is about equidistant 



between the front of the same and the point %\'here the lateral 



margin (or base) of the head is in contact with the neck, while 



in the present species the hindmost point of the eye is very 



distinctly nearer to the same than to the neck. I am a little 



doubtful whether this may not be the apterous insect which M. 



Fauve] (Ann. Mus. Gen., 1878, p. 516) mentions as a var. of 



cruenticollis, but if so I tliink that learned entomologist must 



have overlooked the difference in the size of the eye. 



W. Australia; taken in 1886 by Mr. Meyrick. 



P. cruenticollis, Germ. In November last year I found this 

 species in countless thousands crawling over the snow on some 

 of the liighest peaks of the Australian Alps. 



LITHOCHARIS. 



L. varicornis, sp. nov. Sat robusta ; parallela ; pilis erectis 



sparsim vestita ; minus nitida ; picea, elytrorum sutura rufes- 



centi, antennarum basi et apice prothorace abdominis apice 



pedibusque rufis ; crebre subtilissime punctulata ; elytris 



prothorace vix longioribus. Long., 1-|- 1. ; lat, -/q 1. 



Not unlike the European L. hrunnea, Er., in build, but with 



very much finer and closer puncturation and somewhat longer 



elytra ; the head is shorter than in that species, being a little 



shorter than the protliorax. Joints 3—7 of the antennae are 



nearly black. The short series before me appears to be of one 



sex only — female. 



Victorian Alps ; among dead leaves. 



SCOP.EUS. 



S. ruficollis, Fvl. This is really an undescribed species, as its 

 author merely points out in what respects it differs from the 

 European S. E7'ichsoni, Kolen. I have a Scopceits from the 

 Alpine district of Victoria which may be it, or may not — the 

 latter is more probable, since Queensland is said to be the habitat 



