156 



Eupcecila inscripta, Janson. 



PI. vii., figs. 23 and 24. 



Living specimens of this species are of a beautiful pale- 

 green colour, but after immersion in alcohol the green changes 

 to yellowish-green (as the type was described to be), and 

 finally to brownish-yellow. The markings are variable, but 

 the reversed W ( 28 > on the prothorax appears to be always 

 conspicuous. The pygidium usually has three black spots on 

 the male, but sometimes the median one is absent. On the 

 female only the median spot is present. 



Chlorobapta frontalis, Don. 

 PI. viii., figs. 29 to 40. 



This common and widely distributed species is the most 

 variable of all the Australian G etonides . In length it ranges 

 from 17 to 26 mm. The markings are indifferently green, 

 greenish-yellow, or yellow, but probably on living specimens 

 they are nearly always green. Many specimens have mark- 

 ings somewhat like those of Eupcecila australasice, but that 

 species has the mesosternal process acute. 



The description of viridisignata would indicate that it is 

 quite an ordinary variety of the species. It is true that 

 Macleay made no mention of prothoracic markings, but these 

 are often so small and obscure that they could be easily over- 

 looked. 



The form described as jansoni appears to represent 

 almost, but not quite, the extreme end on the dark side. A 

 specimen, labelled by the late Rev. T. Blackburn as jansoni, 

 agrees well with the description, except that it has no spots 

 on the pygidium; but these are frequently absent, even on 

 specimens with quite extended markings. The spots were 

 described as bright-yellow, and they are bright-yellow on the 

 specimen under examination. There are two specimens of 

 this variety in the National Museum, also without spots on 

 the pygidium. One has been in Mr. French's collection, and 

 is labelled as from the Salt River in the late Mr. A. S. Olliff's 

 writing. 



The pale markings attain their maximum on a specimen 

 (fig. 30) in the National Museum, on whose right elytron all 

 are connected, with the exception of the posthumeral spot. 

 On the variety jansoni (fig. 40) all the markings on the upper- 

 surface have disappeared, with the exception of a small spot 

 on each elytron. And on two specimens before me the upper- 

 surface is entirely dark; one of these was labelled as frontalis 



(28) In North-Western Australia the species is commonly 

 referred to as the W-beetle. 



