223 



vary considerably in size, they are usually of an uniform 

 bronze or coppery-bronze, except that some of the basal joints 

 of the antennae are reddish; but a deep blue variety is 

 common ; specimens are occasionally black or bluish-green, 

 or purple, and the prothorax and elytra are not always of 

 the same shade of colour. There were specimens in the 

 Blackburn collection labelled by Chapuis as maxillosus (a 

 male) and cisteUus (a female). The specimens before me are 

 from many localities in New South Wales, South and 

 Western Australia, and from Queensland (Bowen), and 

 Victoria (Melbourne). 



The other large or fairly large described blue species 

 before me differ from the blue variety as follows: — 



D. ahdonihuilu has the abdomen wholly or partly red. 



I), coelest/s has denser and more sharply defined punc- 

 tures on the head and prothorax, head with a circular inter- 

 ocular fovea representing the median line, and metasternum 

 with coarser and less crowded punctures on sides. 



D. vigilans has eyes much closer together in the female,, 

 and almost touching in the male, prothoracic punctures 

 sparser and more minute, and almost absent from the sides. 



Prothorax and elytra pubescent . 



DiTROPlDUS PUBESCENS, U. Sp. 



d • Coppery-bronze, labrum, antennae, palpi, and legs 

 red. Moderately densely clothed all over with white 

 pubescence. 



Head with dense, partially concealed punctures. Eyes 

 widely separated. Frotliorax about twice as wide as the 

 median length; with sparser and smaller punctures than on 

 head. Elytra shagreened and densely punctate, striae feeble 

 on sides and scarcely traceable elsewhere. L^gs stoat, the 

 front ones somewhat longer than the others. Length {S ■> 9 )> 

 3'25-4'5 mm. 



9 . Differs in having the head somewhat smaller, 

 antennae thinner, front legs no longer than the hind ones, 

 and in the abdomen. 



Kah. — South Australia: Leigh Creek (Blackburn's 

 collection). Type, I. 10952. 



An oblong-elliptic rather densely clothed species, with 

 elytra feebly striated even on the sides; on some specimens, 

 apparently owing to a parting in the pubescence, there seems 

 to be a carina above each eye. It is more oblong and with 

 much denser clothing than on irhitei and puhicollis, the legs 

 entirely reddish or almost so, and the finer sculpture different. 

 The tips of some of the antennal and tarsal joints are often 



H 



