Descriptions of some new forms of (aberrant Melolontliini from Australia: 

 forming a distinct subtribe (Systellopides), by D. SHARP. 



In this paper I have given the characters of some very interes- 

 ting Australian beetles which I consider should be associated 

 together to form a distinct subtribe in the sense of Lacordaire 

 (Gen. des Coléoptères), the natural position of which subtribe 

 should in my opinion be at the commencement of the Melo- 

 lontliini near to the Glaphyrides. I have included in this group 

 eight species, all I believe new, and which I have been obliged 

 to consider as representing seven new genera. 



It is probable that besides these species, the Prochelyna he- 

 terodoxa Er. , and the Metascelis flexilis West, should be included 

 in this group; but neither of these species is known to me, and 

 both are very imperfectly characterized; of Metascelis flexilis the 

 habitat even is unknown: I think it probable however that 

 Metascelis flexilis may prove allied to Chilodiplus Albertisii, and 

 Prochelyna heterodoxa, to Atholerus obscurus. 



Lacordaire associated the Prochelyna heterodoxa, and the Me- 

 tascelis flexilis with the European Pachypus ^ and some other 

 insects, in a subtribe which he called Pachypodides; now though 

 it is undoubtedly the case that the Australian insects which I 

 here describe and name have some points of structure in com- 

 mon whith Pachypus , yet they have some other important points 

 in which they are very different from it, and this fact renders 

 their association in the same sub-tribe unnatural. These diffe- 

 rences consist in the position and form of the labrum, and in 

 the structure of those portions of the hind body (or abdomen) 

 in which the stigmata are placed; the structure of these latter 

 parts in Pachypus being extremely peculiar, although it has as 

 yet escaped description. Those points are so important as to make 

 it advisable to separate Pachypus , and the other European and 

 African forms from the Australian insects, which I consider form 

 a remarkably distinct subtribe; and I propose to call it Syste/- 



