144 



with the description. Four Tasmanian specimens from Black- 

 burn's collection were standing under the name of australe, 

 and structurally they agree with the other four, but they 

 differ in being considerably paler, only the head and prothorax 

 being piceous, the elytra somewhat paler, and the legs and 

 palpi of a rather dingy castaneous-brown. Three Victorian 

 specimens in the National Museum are intermediate in colour. 

 L, adelaidae (of which the type is before me) appears to 

 -represent only a slight colour variety; the differences in the 

 punctures mentioned by Blackburn are of an individual rather 

 than of a specific nature, and the interstices are much alike; 

 the depth and width of the prothoraeic impression are also 

 liable to individual variation. 



PTINIDAE. 



Dr. Mjoberg has recently published a paper dealing with 

 Australian Ptinidae (Arkiv for Zoologi, 1916, Band 10, 

 No. 6).( 6 ^ By stating (p. 1) that only ten Australian species 

 of Ptinus were described, and that of Ptinus cd<bomaculatus, 

 Macl., "nothing of later literature (than the original descrip- 

 tion) dealing with the species can be found," it is evident 

 that he had overlooked my paper in the Proceedings of the 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales for 1911 (pp. 468-474), 

 in which seven new species of the genus were described, and 

 albomaculatus was redescribed. 



He proposes five new genera for myrmecophilous species, 

 but of these only one new genus is formally described ; of the 

 others Decemplocotes (p. 2) is proposed for Diplocotes decern- 

 articulatus, Lea, and D. strigicollis, Lea; Leaptinus (p. 3) 

 for PaussopUnus dolichognathus , Lea; Mesectrephes (p. 3) for 

 Ectrejihes kingii, Westw. ; and Monectrephes (p. 3) for E . 

 pascoei, Westw. On pp. 6, 7 is given a table of subfamilies, # 

 and on pp. 7, 8 a key to the genera; the student being left to 

 gather information of the new genera from these, sometimes 

 wrong, particulars. The part of the key dealing with the 

 Ectrephinae is as follows : — 



A. Antennae with a flat club consisting of 



5 joints Ectrephes, Pasc. 



B. Antennae with the joints and the club, 



firmly grown together into a broad 

 club, snowing only indistinct marks 

 of the joints on the posterior margin Mesectrephes, Mjob. 



C. Antennae with a club consisting only 



of a long uniform joint Monectrephes, Mjob. 



(6) I have not seen it in the original publication, having to 

 thank Dr. Mjoberg for a reprint, in which the pages are 1-15; if 

 these are not the correct pages it will be necessary to alter those 

 given in my notes. 



