46 



below), but from that genus it differs in the strongly dentate jaws, labrum in- 

 curved to middle instead of deeply notched, eyes smaller, lateral and with some- 

 what larger facets, and front tarsi strongly dilated. The jaws, eyes, labrum, 

 mandibles, and tarsi are all different from those of Suniopsis. The head is some- 

 what like that of Dicax (all the known species of which are winged), but the 

 middle and hind tarsi are very different, somewhat resembling those of 

 Scimbalium, whose front tarsi, however, are usually thinner. In catalogues 

 the genus should be placed near Dicax and Hypcromma. 



Macrodicax potens, n. sp. Fig. 2. 



6 • Black, in parts with a slight bronzy gloss ; mouth parts, parts of 

 mandibles, antennae, palpi, legs, most of sterna, and a narrow strip (between 

 the gular sutures) on under-surface of head more or less reddish, parts of 

 under-surface of abdomen obscurely diluted with red. Upper-surface with 

 rather long, scattered, dark hairs, becoming dense on abdomen and legs, front 

 of labrum with long reddish hairs. 



Head subquadrate between front and neck, hind angles rounded off, front 

 feebly incurved to middle ; with fairly numerous, large, setif erous punctures, 

 but absent from a space along middle ; with numerous minute punctures scat- 

 tered about. Antennae thin but not very long, none of the joints transverse, 

 first stouter than the others, and almost as long as second to fourth combined, 

 fourth somewhat longer than second and much shorter than third. Prothorax 

 slightly longer than wide, apex slightly wider than base, and slightly curved 

 near each side, sides gently incurved near base; with a semidouble row of dis- 

 tinct- punctures on each side of middle, more irregular ones towards and on 

 sides, and with numerous very minute ones scattered about. Elytra conjointly 

 transverse, distinctly shorter than prothorax and less than its greatest width ; 

 with irregular rows of large rough punctures, some of which are irregularly 

 longitudinally confluent. Upper-surface of abdomen with rather dense and not 

 very deep but sharply-defined punctures ; under-surface with somewhat similar 

 ones, but becoming suddenly much smaller and denser in middle of second and 

 third segments, sixth segment deeply notched in middle. Front tibiae notched 

 on inner side towards base. Length (excluding mandibles), 14 mm. 



Hab. — New South Wales: Dorrigo (H. W. Cox). Unique. 



A powerful-looking insect, with a bigger head than any other apterous 

 species of the family known to me from Australia. In some lights parts of the 

 abdomen appear to be slightly iridescent. There appears to be at least one comb 

 of small golden teeth at the notch on each front tibia, but I have been unable to 

 see it clearly, partly owing to the density of the clothing; the notch itself is 

 distinct from but few directions ; the tip of each tibia has a fringe of golden 

 setae on its upper edge, less distinct on the middle ones than on the others. The 

 left mandible is slightly dilated from the tip to beyond the middle, when its 

 inner edge slightly curves inwards before a strong acutely-triangular tooth, 

 beyond this are two smaller but fairly large teeth ; the right mandible is without 

 the slight incurvature before the big tooth, and its two smaller teeth are smaller 

 than those on the left, and should perhaps be regarded as cusps of a tooth. 

 The antennae are now broken on the type, only four joints remaining on one 

 of them, but one was perfect when the figure was drawn. The head and pro- 

 thorax are very finely shagreened, the elytra rather more coarsely. The large 

 punctures on the head are smaller than those on the elytra, but more sharply 

 defined and evenly rounded, they are considerably larger than those on the 

 prothorax, the minute ones on the latter, except in certain lights, are scarcely 

 distinguislaable from the shagreening. 



