16 



Further Notes on Australian Goleoptera, 

 ^wiTH Descriptions of New Genera ani> 

 Species. 



By the Rev. T. Blackburn, B.A. 



[Read April 8, 1902.] 



XXX. 



STAPHYLINID^. 

 [ALEOCHARIDES.] 



POLYLOBUS. 



I have received from Mr. Lea specimens named P. insecatua, 

 FvL, acceptus, Oil., and notus, Oil. They are certainly not 

 Polylohi nor even true Aleocharini but belong to the Gyrophcenini. 

 I believe Mr. Lea arrived at the names by comparison with the 

 late Mr. Olliff's specimens, and I should say that they are 

 probably identified correctly with the insects to which Mr. OUiff 

 assigned those names, the last two agreeing well with his descrip- 

 tions. I should have considered it impossible that the latter 

 author could have regarded the insect received by me from Mr. 

 Lea as P. insecatus, Fvl., as really that insect, were it not that 

 in describing the two other species named above he said that 

 they approached P. insecatus, Fvl. (though it should be noted 

 that elsewhere he spoke of " the insect to which I refer the name 

 P. insecatus" indicating that he did not claim certainty for his 

 determination). As a fact it is about as far from agreement 

 with M. Fauvel's description as any Aleochar^id could well be, its 

 facies being quite that of the genus Gyrophcena (whereas Fauvel 

 says that P. insecatus has the facies of Oxypoda exigua), its 

 pronotum and elytra being scarcely visibly punctulate except in 

 the former having a few coarse punctures and the latter a very 

 sparse inconspicuous puncturation, the Gyrophcena type of sculp- 

 ture (whereas Fauvel calls those parts in P. insecatus " creberrime 

 subtilissime punctatis ") and its being particularly nitid even for 

 a Gyrophcena {"^hereaiS Fauvel calls P. insecatus " vix nitidulus"). 

 There seems then to be no doubt that P. insecatits, Olliff (nee 

 Fauvel), P. notus, Oil., and P. acceptus, Oil., belong to the 

 Gyrophainhii. I am unable to refer them confidently to their 

 genus in that group as, like Mr. Ollifi", I am unable to obtain 

 access to the diagnosis of Brachida ; moreover none of the speci- 



