510 ON AUSTRALIAN ANTHICIDAE, 



tinctly wider than head, strongly constricted near basal third; with rather dense 

 and sharply defined punctures, becoming- smaller in front; flattened along middle. 

 Elytra thin, elongate-elliptic, ' shoulders rounded off ; with seriate punctures large 

 and close together about base, rapidly getting smaller and almost disappearing 

 about apex. Length, 3 mm. 



Hab. — Victoria: South Gippsland (H. W. Da%'ey). Unique. 



A black, apterous species, and the smallest of the genus; from the other 

 apterous species, I. concolor and T. aptera, it may be distinguished by its small 

 size, dark colour, and by the almost complete absence of a median prothoraeic 

 line; from most directions, indeed, it appears to be really absent, and it is only 

 in certain lights, and from oblique directions, that a faint line may be traced. 



Meotnotaesus. 



Of the described Australian species of this genus aijicipennis, kreusleri and 

 mastersi are abundantly distinct. At flret glance the processes on the margin of 

 the prothoraeic projection would appear to be of considerable use in distinguish- 

 ing species, but on siczac they certainly varj' in number, usually being eleven 

 (five on each side and an apical one), very rarely nine; on some specimens they 

 are thirteen, and even fifteen, owing to minute supplementary ones at the base; 

 on amabilis they are usually nine, but occasionally eleven; on albellus they ai-e 

 neaxly always eleven; on my specimens of concolor nine. The clothing on all 

 these latter is variable; on albellus it is usually of a snowy whiteness, but on 

 amabilis, concolor and nczac the elytral scales are mostly white, with pale brown 

 markings of varying shades of colour, and varying from covering much of the 

 surface to covering so little and the colour so faint that it is difficult to dis- 

 tinguish them from albellus. Consequently I have set aside many specimens 

 which may belong to unnamed species, but which it is not desirable to name as 

 new. 



Mecynotarsus kingi Macl. 



A GajTidah specimen labelled by Olliff as M. kingi, agTees with the type of 

 M. amabilis, although Macleay made no mention of elytral marking's. 



Mectnotaesus maculatus, n.sp. 



Pale castaneous, legs and antennae flavous. Densely clothed with white, 

 subsquamose pubescence,' sparser on prothoraeic projection than elsewhere, its 

 under surface sparsely pubescent, elytra with two or three pale yellowish spots. 

 Length, 2.5—2.75 mm. 



Hab.— Tasmania : Hobart (A. M. Lea); New South Wales: Sydney (H. W. 

 Cox); Northern Queensland (Blackburn's collection); South Australia: Port Lin- 

 coln (Lea). 



Structurally close to M. ziczac, but each elytron with two or three discon- 

 nected spots (on that species the median markings are more extended and are 

 connected along the suture with sub-basal and subapical marking-s) ; the spots 

 are not as dark as the derm on which they rest, but as this is normally concealed 

 they are distinct; there is one near the middle of each eiytron, nearer the suture 

 than side, usually transversely subtriangular, with the wide end near the suture 

 (which it never appears to touch), but occasionally it is semi-double; on the 

 suture close to apex there is often a similarly coloured spot but seldom sharply 

 defined, and often entirely absent. The prothorax is about the shape of that of 

 ziczac, but the tubercles on the outer edge of its process are usually nine in num- 



