156 



fresh light upon the subject. The elytra vary in colour from 

 black to rufous in the species which I take to be nigettus. 



II. At/f/ii«tct, Blackb. This species forms with crassus, 

 Blackb., and electus, Blackb., a trio of. species not very easy 

 to distinguish by characters that lend themselves to tabula- 

 tion. The coarse, sparse puncturation of the elytra of crassus 

 (only about 18 punctures across an elytron) is. however, very 

 distinctive. Of the other two, electus is evidently the nar- 

 rower and less robust, is invariably (so far as I have seen) 

 very much lighter in colour, with prothorax less narrowed in 

 front and less rounded on the sides, and with elytra non- 

 granulate or with at most an accidental two or three granules, 

 the granules of Augusta, being plentiful and distributed over 

 the whole surface of the elytra. 



77. nigricans, Burrn. There is a specimen in the Macleay 

 Museum at Sydney bearing this name. I examined it when 

 I was writing my former Revision of Heteronyx, and thought 

 it correctly identified. When I visited the Macleay Museum 

 with a view to the preparation of this present memoir, I acci- 

 dentally omitted to re-examine the said specimen, and as my 

 description of it in my former Revision does not mention all 

 the details needed to be known before the species can be placed 

 in the tabulation of this present memoir, I am obliged to pass 

 it by for the present, and must content mvself with referring 

 to Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W., 1889, pp. 142 ""and 151, for infor- 

 mation concerning it. It should be noted that in my former 

 Revision (loc. cit.j I accidentally called this species nigricans, 

 "Er.," in error. 



H. obscurus, Le Guill. I have not seen the original 

 description under this name. Burmeister states that the 

 species is identical with H . nigettus, Er. The name and habi- 

 tat taken together are suggestive of the statement being 

 probably correct. The name, however, cannot stand, H. 

 obscurus, Hombr. et Jacq. (Blanch.), having precedence of 

 date. 



H . spadiceus, Burm. It is probable that this is a mem- 

 ber of Group VI. It is from the Swan River, and is described 

 as entirely glabrous (uberall haarfrei). I conjecture that 

 the description was founded on a badly-abraded insect. The 

 structure of the claws is not mentioned. 



II . unicoldr, Blanch. This species also probably apper- 

 tains to Group VI. The want of information concerning the 

 claws renders it possible (as in the case of the preceding 

 species) that it is a member of Group V. It could \>e iden- 

 tified only by comparison with the type, or by means of a 

 specimen from Tasmania agreeing with the description. 



