106 On a Genus of Coleoptera. 



years 1837 and 1838, amounted to £1,462,800. The land 

 would have been totally unproductive without irrigation. 

 In this last instance the rental paid to the government in 

 two years more than covered the cost of the original outlay. 

 There is an annual balance of revenue over expenditure of 

 £167,136. The area irrigated is 351,501 acres. 



The author quoted copiously from Colonel Baird Smith's 

 work on " Irrigation and Drainage in Italy, and also India," 

 and from a return by Major Baker on similar questions. 



Art. XXYIII. — On a Genus of Coleoptera hitherto unfound 

 in Victoria* — By William Henry Archer, Esq. 



[Read 16th May, 1864.] 



I beg to introduce to your notice this evening an interest- 

 ing specimen of a beetle, which, as far as I can at present 

 learn, has been hitherto unrecognised within the limits of 

 Victoria. I obtained it from the neighbourhood of the 

 St. Arnaud silver mines, where it was found under an old 

 log, with about a dozen others of varying size, by the 

 Director of the mines, whom I had requested to look out 

 for Natural History objects. When I received them, they 

 were in a small tin canister. Some were dead, and had 

 become offensive. The survivors I found proceeding deli- 

 berately to eat each other ; and to put an end to this 

 Kilkenny-cat process, I gave them all a protecting quietus. 

 The specimen before you is two and a-half inches in length, 

 and about three-quarters of an inch in breadth, a size for a 

 beetle which may well be termed gigantic. From its struc- 

 ture, yon will perceive that it has powers of attack and 

 defence of a most formidable character. 



My friend, the accomplished naturalist, Count Castlenau, 

 or, as he is quoted authoritatively in scientific writings, 

 M. Laporte, states that : " This beautiful insect belongs to 

 the order Coleoptera, to the family Carabidce, and to the 

 tribe Morionido3. ,y It was first described by Schrebers in the 

 " Transactions of the Linnasan Society," under the name of 

 Scarites Schroetteri. Count de Castlenau, curiously enough, 

 years ago, in his " Etudes Entomologiques," separated it 

 from the Scarites, and established it as a separate genus, 

 under the name of Hyperion. Since then, Bois-duval, in 



* See Note in Proceedings. 





