219 



belong to a rare variety of a common and very variable species, 

 several varieties of which have been named ; but as baldiensis 

 was the first named the others must rank as its varieties. 



Waterhousei. On this form the elytral clothing is dark 

 outwardly from an oblique line extending from each shoulder 

 to the suture near the apex, but the positions of the oblique 

 lines vary with the point of view, the clothing inwards of it 

 is more or less greyish (on some specimens golden-grey or 

 golden-brown), but from certain lights also appears black. 



Baldiensis. The suture and an oblique line from each 

 shoulder towards the suture are clothed with paler (usually 

 somewhat golden) pubescence than on the rest of the elytra 

 (but from some directions these markings are not visible). 



Alboscutellata. Pale clothing of elytra confined to the 

 shoulders. 



Ignota. Pale clothing of the elytra consists of scattered 

 whitish hairs, absent from an oblique line from each shoulder 

 to the suture near the apex (but the oblique lines not sharply 

 defined). 



The above four forms are moderately large (4-5^ mm. to 

 tips of elytra), but they are exactly paralleled by smaller 

 specimens (2^-4 mm.) that occur in much greater abundance. 

 They all have the four basal joints of the front tarsi of the 

 males about the width of the tip of the tibiae; in the female 

 they are distinctly narrower. 



Inconspicxja. Much like alboscutellata on a small scale. 



A specimen (from Launching Place, in the National 

 Museum) has two oblique vittae from each shoulder, the 

 inner one less conspicuous than the outer. Several specimens 

 (from Stradbroke Island and Brisbane, in the Queensland 

 Museum) have the pale pubescence on the elytra triangularly 

 diminishing to near the suture about the middle, and then 

 continued along the suture for a short distance : but each 

 elytron has a distinct black spot near the base. On many 

 specimens the only pale clothing on the elytra is an obscure 

 patch on each shoulder, and even that occasionally vanishes. 

 Numerous other slight varietal forms might be described. 



Mordella bella, Waterh. 



The form of this species with the basal half of the elytra 

 clothed with pale pubescence and abruptly limited behind 

 by a zigzag fascia is quite certainly distinct from promiscua ; 

 but the clothing varies till the only pale portions left are 

 narrowly-margining parts at the base and the median zigzag 

 fascia; specimens on which even these are broken up are 

 difficult to distinguish from spotted ones of promiscua; and 

 specimens on which the golden pubescence is considerably 



