540 



The basal joint of the hind tarsi is scarcely perceptibly 

 longer than the second joint (it is certainly not shorter), so 

 the species should be referred to Group 7, and there associated 

 with iridipenms (to which it is structurally very close), but ir 

 differs in being larger, elytra mostly red, and punctures of 

 pronotum more distinct. On the type the clypeus from above 

 appears to be obscurely and very narrowly margined with red, 

 but from below and in a suitable light the margin appears to 

 be of a conspicuous blood-red colour. Owing to its brilliant 

 iridescence it is a particularly beautiful species, although the 

 general colours are as in many other species. The type is 

 without an elytral membrane. 



Group 10. 



LlPARETRUS MELALEUCAE, 11. Sp. 



PI. xxxvii., fig. 126. 



Black; elytra of a dingy piceous-brown, legs partly pale:, 

 antennae (club partly infuscated) and palpi still paler. Sterna 

 with moderately dense pale hair, abdomen with a row of long 

 setae on each segment (usually interrupted in middle), head 

 with sparse hairs, a fringe on each side of prothorax and 

 extended on to sides of front margin, rest of upper-surface 

 glabrous. 



Head with crowded and small punctures, some of which 

 are transversely confluent, with an irregular row of larger 

 punctures between eyes ; two feeble tubercles in middle ; 

 clypeus with somewhat larger and sparser punctures than on 

 head, sides strongly diminishing in width to apex, which is 

 strongly tridentate. Antennae nine-jointed. Prothorax with 

 sides strongly rounded, hind angles widely rounded off, front 

 ones produced and acute, median line shallow and confined to 

 basal half; punctures rather small and not very dense. Elytra 

 with sparse and rather small punctures; geminate-striae w T ell- 

 defined. Hind parts with punctures much as on pronotum. 

 Front tibiae strongly tridentate; basal joint of hind tarsi 

 distinctly longer than second. Length, 5^-6i mm. 



Hab. — South Australia: Murray River (F. R. Zietz^, 

 Mount Lofty (S. H. Curnow), Cook Plains, on flowers of 

 Melaleuca (J. G. O. Tepper). Type, I. 480. 



Belongs to CCC, of Blackburn's table ; the prothorax is 

 not conspicuously frilled all across the apex, but there are 

 some conspicuous hairs towards the sides on some specimens, 

 and across the middle there are a few r depressed hairs; prob- 

 ably Blackburn would have referred it to his Group 10, and 

 it would there be associated with perkinsi, from which it 

 differs in being larger, elytra darker, clypeal projections less 



