195 



femora are extremely stout, a character very likely to be sexual. 



This species is very near to A. Tatei, Blackb., but is very dis- 

 tinct from it by reason inter alia of its much less nitid surface 

 and the absence of an apical elytral spine, also the presence of 

 yellow markings between the base and middle of the elytra 

 which I have not seen in any example of A. 2\itei. 



Victoria Desert. 



APHANASIUM. 



I feel considerable hesitation in referring the following species 

 to this genus. Probably Mr. Pascoe (who has done the largest 

 part of the work hitherto on the Australian Longicorns) would 

 found a new genus for it, but as the genera already formed for 

 species more or less allied to the present insect are numerous and 

 perplexing, I am anxious to avoid any risk of increasing the 

 difficulty. Fortunately this particular insect presents notable 

 specific characters that will render its identification easy, and it 

 is certainly very near to Aphanasiiim. In M. Lacordaire's 

 arrangement of the Gerambycides the following characters — eyes 

 coarsely granulated, intermediate coxse open laterally, abdomen 

 slender and cylindrical, with the apical segment elongate — bring 

 its possible location within somewliat narrow limits, and tlie 

 additional character of its labial and maxillary palpi being equal 

 {or nearly so) inter se in length, reduces to two (i.e., I^eostenides 

 and Aphanasiides) the subfamilies in which it could be placed. 

 These two subfamilies appear to me to be very close; M. Lacor- 

 daire distinguishes them inter se in his tabulation by the anterior 

 cox<e of the former being " moderately prominent," and of the 

 latter " prominent" (a distinction which I do not find workable, 

 as there is, e.g., no mai-ked difference in this respect between 

 Neostenus Saundersi, Paso., and Aphanasium australe, Boisd.), 

 and adds in his detailed descriptions several slight and unsatis- 

 factory distinctions, together with the more definite one that in 

 the former the legs are short, the hind femora never reaching 

 beyond the second ventral segment, while in the latter they are 

 "moderately long." In the present insect the front coxre are 

 about as prominent as in the two species mentioned above, but 

 as the hind femora reach considerably beyond the second ventral 

 segment (being about as long as in Aphmiasinm australe) I must 

 regard the species as an Aphanasiid. Ajjhanasium is the only 

 Australian genus of the subfamily yet noticed (unless Myrsus, 

 whose habitat is unknown, be Australian, to which genus, liow- 

 ever, the present species cannot, I think, be referred, especially 

 as Lacordaire's characters for it in his tabulation and his diagnosis 

 flatly contradict each other ; at any rate, the species is very 

 unlike the present one)' The abdomen of the insect before me is 

 considerably more narrowly-cylindrical and Neostemis-lika than 



