140 



proportion to its length. It is also characterised by the elytra 

 being (not gradually narrowed from the base to the apex, but) 

 slightly narroM^ed immediately behind the base, and then lightly 

 dilated again, so that they are very slightly wider just before the 

 apex than at any other part. The prothorax is just barely wider 

 across the hind angles than its length down the middle, and im- 

 mediately in front of the middle it is in both sexes almost or quite 

 as wide as across the hind angles, which are only very slightly 

 j)roduced hind ward or outward, the sides being gently sinuate. 

 It is very closely and quite rugulosely punctulate in front, less so 

 behind. Its dorsal channel is extremely feeble in the examples 

 before me, and the lateral fovea? are only slightly marked. The 

 front angles are more or less feeble and rounded. The elytra are 

 distinctly striate, the stria? irregularly punctulate, the external 

 ones having stronger and larger punctures than those near the 

 suture, all the stria:* and their punctures becoming more or less 

 obsolete towards the apex. Each apex is separately and feebly 

 rounded, the suture ending in a very small spine. The interstices 

 are more or less closely punctured, more strongly in the male 

 than the female. The sides of the prosternum are very strongly 

 and sparingly punctured — (this is a highly distinctive character, 

 and does not seem to vary). The antenna? of the male are shorter 

 than in the large common South Australian s>Y)ecieii (T. An sir alasicf^, 

 or possibly Mitrrayi if the two are really distinct), and the indi- 

 vidual branches of the same are also shorter, though they are very 

 distinctly longer than the distance between the bases of the 

 antennae. The tarsi also are notably shorter, especially in the 

 male. 



From 7". Fortnumi (vide " supra ") it differs chiefly in being 

 much less attenuate behind, with the prothorax less rugulose dor- 

 sally ; the sides of the prosternum much less closely punctulate ; 

 the branches of the antenna? in the male considerably longer, and 

 the apical spines of the elytra much feebler. 



TENEBRIONID^. 

 LEPISPILUS. 



L. rofjindicollis, sp. nov. Oblongus ; convexus ; piceus ; macu- 

 latim flavo-pubescens ; prothoracis lateribus sinuatis, latitu- 

 dine paulo ante medium quam trans basin haud minore. 

 Long., 81.; lat., 3|1. 

 Diflers from L. sulcicollis, Boisd., in the form of the prothorax, 

 which is (by measurement) very nearly twice as wide as long (as 

 13 to 7 in tlie example before me), with the front about two- 

 thirds the width of the base, the sides strongly convex in outline 

 immediately behind the front, and from the middle to the l)ase 

 almost as strongly concave, so that the greatest divergence is at 



