347 



B ead with forehead conspicuously quadrisinuate, in front 

 of same punctures concealed : ocular fovea narrow. Rostrum 

 strongly curved, each side behind antennae dilated towards but 

 notched at base : behind antennae with coarse concealed punc- 

 tures, separated by narrow, distinct ridges ; in front of same 

 highly polished and sparsely and minutely punctured. Pro- 

 thorax not much wider than long, apex more than half the 

 width of middle ; with rather coarse irregular punctures : with 

 an irregular median carina, somewhat dilated in middle. 

 Elytra at base not much wider than widest part of prothorax, 

 but distinctly wider than its base, base strongly trisinuate ; 

 with rows of large round punctures, becoming smaller pos- 

 teriorly : interstices decidedly narrower than punctures. Two 

 basal segments of abdomen with large sparse punctures, apical 

 segment with smaller and denser ones. Length, 5-6 mm. 



Hah. — Queensland: Toowoomba (Horace AV. Brown); 

 Rockhampton (H. W. Cox). 



On the prothorax most of the scales are stout, more or less 

 brownish or ochreons, and in places compacted into feeble 

 fascicles, but there are usually a few snowy scales on the disc 

 and sides. On each elytron there is a very conspicuous snowy 

 transverse spot, irregularly extending from the third interstice 

 to the fifth, slightly before the middle, there is also a distinct 

 ochreous fascicle on the third near base ; elsewhere there are 

 numerous feeble ochreous or sooty fascicles. On the under- 

 surface the scales are very irregularly distributed, much of the 

 surface being naked. The legs are usually conspicuously 

 ringed. 



POROPTERUS. 



This genus is abundantly represented in Australia, and 

 contains forms that at first appear to belong to several distinct 

 genera. In formerly ^^'^^ dealing with the genus 1 considered 

 that all species having the femora either dentate or grooved 

 should be excluded from it. But several species were then 

 allowed to remain in the genus, or were referred to it, whose 

 femora are really dentate, although the teeth, being very small 

 and usually concealed by the clothing (and frequently also by 

 dried mud), they were overlooked till quite recently. The 

 species referred to belong to the exitiosus group, and appear 

 to form a natural cluster characterized by the wide flat pro- 

 thorax, multi-tuberculate elytra with projecting shoulders, 

 absence of scutellum, and by the deep abdominal sutures. The 

 described species of the group are : — 



F. e-ritiosus, Pasc. This is the typical species of the 

 group; its femora at first appear to be edentate, but on close 



{28)Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W., 1897, p. 455. 



