180 



usually feign death on being disturbed, hence when beaten 

 into the collecting umbrella or sheet they need to be closely 

 looked for. Thus even in some fairly large collections of 

 Australian beetles they are either totally unrepresented, or 

 represented by very few specimens. Great diversity of 

 opinion exists as to the genera of the family, but with the 

 largest accumulation of Australian species and specimens ever 

 examined together, the network of relationships appears to 

 be too intricate for the bulk of the species to be referred to 

 more than one genus ; more especially as the sexual differences 

 are often very considerable. The eyes are always large, and 

 sometimes occupy most of the head, and vary from almost 

 entire to very deeply notched, and they are usually larger 

 and closer together in the male than in the female. The 

 antennae are always longer in the male than in the female 

 (sometimes considerably so), occasionally some of their joints 

 are provided with long rami, and occasionally the apical joints 

 are modified into clasping organs. The legs usually have 

 distinctive sexual characters, the front trochanters being 

 frequently armed, but owing to the difficulties in manipulat- 

 ing the front legs for examination these must be often 

 overlooked ; the hind femora are usually stouter in the male 

 than in the female, and dentate or fringed on the lower 

 surface; in many species the hind tibiae are conspicuously 

 dilated to and notched at apex ; this character is not entirely 

 a sexual one, but it is more pronounced in the male. 



With very few exceptions the specimens before me had 

 to be floated off and set for examination, and to prepare such 

 small specimens (some of which were taken many years back) 

 that the under-parts and legs are clearly visible was not 

 always easy; in particular it was difficult to set out the front 

 legs, so that although it was easy enough to note the colour 

 of these, their sculpture had often to be passed over. Fre- 

 quently also it was impossible to distinguish the sexes from 

 processes projecting from the tip of the abdomen ; often when 

 sufficiently long and soft such a process could be seen to be 

 an ovipositor, and sometimes an oedeagus was distinct ; but 

 on the type of pilosicornis, and on specimens of several other 

 species, the distinct tip of an oedeagus may be seen protrud- 

 ing from the base of a soft ovipositor-looking process. 



Following is a catalogue of the previously-described 

 species : — 



abnormis, King (Anthicus): Mast. Oat. Sp., No. 4269; 

 Champ.: Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1916, p. 144. 

 Syzeton laetus, Blackb. : Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Austr., 



1891, p. 337; I.e., 1894, p. 219. 

 Hylophilus major, Pic: Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1912, p. 

 ' 48; Annales, p. 286. N.S. Wales; Vict, 



