202 



I have seen no specimen that agrees at all well with the 

 description. Some unplaced females from Jenolan, an un- 

 placed female, without locality label, in Mr. Griffith's col- 

 lection, some females of bursarice, and some males of dubius, 

 certainly have the prothorax darker than the elytra, and one 

 of the Jenolan specimens has the abdomen almost as dark as 

 the metasternum, but the tibiae are uniform in colour with 

 the rest of the legs and all the scales are white or whitish. 

 An occasional male of castaneipennis agrees passably well with 

 the colours, except of the legs, but has scales uniformly pale 

 and much denser on the under- than on the upper-surface. 



But Burmeister quite probably had another species under 

 examination, as in the original description the colours and 

 clothing are given as follows: — a Tete, corselet, parties in- 

 ferieures du corps, (^ plaque anale, noires lisses ; elytres 

 brunes; tout le corps est parseme d'ecailles jaunatres." < 49 ) 

 The original figure is quite useless, and the original descrip- 

 tion would fit the males of the following species more or less 

 well: — Apicalis, bursarice, castaneipennis, dubius, fascicu- 

 latus, ricfipennis, and vagans. On the whole it would appear 

 to be unsafe to identify the species without additional particu- 

 lars, and especially, if the type is a male/ 50 ) of the abdomen 

 and pygidium. 



MlCROVALGUS SCUTELLARIS, Blackb. 



Four females appear to belong to this species. One of 

 these is the specimen from the collection of the late Rev. T. 

 Blackburn previously commented upon. Its prothorax, instead 

 of having dark spots, as in the description, has a dark semi- 

 circle across the apical half, with the convex side in front. 

 Another from his collection, without a label of any kind and 

 previously mixed with some unsorted specimens, has eight 

 small and obscure spots. A specimen from Forest Reefs has 

 six, and one from Jenolan has but two. 



All these specimens have the scutellum densely clothed 

 with whitish scales, and with sooty ones intermingled with 

 the others on the prothorax and elytra. On the py- and propy- 

 gidium the scales are dense, mostly pale but with four irregu- 

 lar clusters of sooty ones. 



The male, as such, is unknown, and it would be unwise 

 to recognize any specimen as a male of the species, unless it 

 was actually taken coupling with a typical female. 



(48) These would appear to include the legs whose colours are 

 not separately mentioned. 



(49) In a preliminary diagnosis (p. 47) they are given as "ater,, 

 luteo-nsquamosus ; elytris brunneis." 



(50) From the description of its colours it would appear to be 

 a male. 



