218 



reads very well as if founded upon this species, and two 

 specimens of it were identified by Mr. Champion as albosparsa, 

 Gemm. (a substitute name for albosignata, Boh.). The type 

 of undosa (fig. 55) also belongs to this species. The species 

 was also doubtfully identified in Blackburn's collection as 

 australis, and without a mark of doubt as albosparsa, but 

 some specimens were also standing in that collection as bella, 

 which most certainly they are not (although with extended 

 and obscured markings it is not always easy to distinguish 

 the two forms) ; it is, however, probable that the specimen, 

 commented upon by Waterhouse, on whose elytra "the spot 

 below the scutellum divides posteriorly," belongs to australis. 



Unfortunately the species is a variable one ; on many 

 specimens the markings are silvery-white, fairly large, and 

 exactly as in the quoted pattern ; but on other specimens, 

 although the markings are as figured, the pubescence of which 

 they are composed differs so little in colour from that of the 

 adjacent parts that it is difficult to make them out. Thus a 

 specimen in the Macleay Museum has the pubescence of the 

 upper-surface apparently entirely dark, but on moving it 

 about in certain lights the typical markings of the species 

 may be traced. Not infrequently the apical mark on each 

 elytron is broken up into two, and it usually has a ragged 

 look. 



Two specimens (from Healesville, in the National Museum) 

 apparently taken at the same time (they are mounted on one 

 card) agree so perfectly in general details that it would be 

 absurd to separate them, yet one (fig. 56) has the oblique 

 vitta much longer than usual, whilst from the other (fig. 57) 

 it is absent, but the humeral vitta is considerably prolonged. 

 Another specimen (fig. 58) (from Fern Tree Gully, in the 

 same Museum) has the subscutellar vitta and the apical spot 

 on each elytron both absent. Some specimens exhibit a 

 tendency to vary in the direction of sydneyana; this is 

 well exemplified by a specimen from Cairns (fig. 59). 



MORDELLA BALDIENSIS, Blackb. 



Var. ivaterhousei, Champ, (obliqua, Waterh., n. pr.). 

 Var. alboscutellata, Lea. 

 Var. ignota, Lea. 

 Var. inconsjricua, Lea. 



The specimens I have previously identified as baldiensis 

 belonged to the form recorded by Blackburn (ante, 1893, 

 p. 138) as from New South Wales, and which he suspected 

 might belong to a different species. I have now seen a co- 

 type and another authenticated specimen, and having about 

 150 specimens to judge from, am now convinced that they 



