991 
the skin of a very dark specimen of the Vulpine Phalanger (Trichosurus vul- 
pecula) from Y allup, W.A., [per favour of the Director of the Perth Museum 
and Art Gallery]. The hair on the back is long, and silky and black; under 
fur grey, the breast white. 7. vulpecula seems to very more in West Austra- 
lia than in the East, where melanism is very infrequent, although general 
in 7. caninus. — 2) Descriptions of new Species of Australian Coleoptera. 
Part IX. By Arthur M. Lea, F.E.S. — The paper contains notes on some 
of the types of King’s and Macleay’s Pselaphidae; notes on Xylopso- 
cus bispinosus Macl., a species of Bostrychidae, of which the male protects 
the female during her egg-laying period, and probably for some time after- 
wards; and descriptions of new species of Staphylinidae (1), Pselaphidae (23, 
including a new genus), Silphidae (9), Byrrhidae (1), Scarabaeidae (2), Ly- 
mexylonidae (2), Ptinidae (7), Tenebrionidae (2, ineluding a new genus, with 
one species of blind insects, the first blind beetle to be recorded from Queens- 
land) and Erotyllidae (1). 
Abstract of Proceedings. September 27th, 1911.— Mr. D. G. Steadsent, 
for exhibition, an undertermined ovigerous Pycnogonid, obtained off Nobbys, 
Neweastle, on the first of the month. — Mr. Steel exhibited specimens of 
the fresh-water ship-worm, Calobates fluviatilis Hedley, (The Society’s Pro- 
ceedings, 1898, p. 91), and a piece of a red-gum pile riddled with their 
burrows, from fresh water, Ba River, Fiji. This organism has now been 
found in fresh water in three different rivers in Fiji, the Rewa, Navua, and 
Ba. — Mr. E. I. Bickford invited the attention of the Society to a matter 
of public, as well as scientific, interest. In 1892, when resident in West 
Australia, he had taken an active part in a movement to have a certain area 
set apart for the protection and preservation of the native flora and fauna. 
Accordingly, in 1892, the Premier, Sir John Forrest, authorised the gazetting 
of an area of 25 square miles between Pinjarra and the Bannister for the 
purpose named. Since leaving West Australia, the speaker regretted to say 
that he had learnt that, with a subsequent change of Government, the reser- 
vation had been abolished, and most of the land given over to a firm as a tim- 
berconcession. This, he thought, was a retrograde step, and very much to be 
deplored. Emissaries of science from Germany, Great Britain, and even 
Sweden, had been visiting West Australia of late years, for the purpose of 
studying and collecting the fauna and flora; and this fact alone should stim- 
ulate West Australians to greater activity in taking steps, before it was too 
late, to secure more adequate protection for the choice characteristic forms. 
For example, the Christmas-Tree, Nuytsia floribunda R.Br., [N.O. Loran- 
thaceae] one of the botanical wonders of Australia, was in grave danger of 
extermination. One lesson was quite evident—if reservations for the pro- 
tection of the native plants and animals were to be effective and of lasting 
value, Trusts must be created, empowered by Act of Parliament to take com- 
plete control of them, as in the case of the National Parks of the other States, 
in order to safeguard them from the whims of the politician or the wiles of 
the exploiter. — On the genus Diphlebia [Neuroptera: Odonata]: with De- 
scriptions of new Species, and Life-Histories. By R. J. Tillyard, M.A, 
F.E.S. — The genus Diphlebia is one of three closely allied genera, grouped 
by the Selys to form the sixth legion (Amphitheryx) in his classification of 
the subfamily Calopteryginae—Devadetta (= Tetraneura of Selys) from the 
Malay Peninsula, Siam, and Borneo; Amphipteryx from Colombia; and 
