178 



punctures. Probably Boisduval used an unduly strong ex- 

 pression in calling the insect before hm "supra 'hirsutus.' ' 

 At any rate, I have not seen any Stethaspis the elytra of 

 which are more hairy than those of Eucalypti as Burmeister 

 describes it. S. piliger is rightly called "hirsutus" in respect 

 of its pvonotum, but it is a Tasmanian species, and there can 

 be little doubt that Boisduval' s type of Eucalypti was from 

 the neighbourhood of Sydney. I conclude, therefore, that 

 the descriptions (of Eucalypti) of the authors mentioned all 

 refer to the large green Stethaspis which occurs commonly in 

 Victoria and New South Wales ; fresh specimens of which 

 always have, as Burmeister says, long, fine, erect hairs, very 

 thinly distributed about the base and apex of the prothorax 

 and between. some of the punctures on the elytra, and also- 

 very sparsely placed short, white, adpressed hairs in single 

 rows in the elytral striae. All this pilosity is very easily 

 rubbed off. 



X. metrosideri, Burm. I have little doubt that a Steth- 

 aspis which I met with on the Blue Mountains is this species. 

 Its differences in colour I have already referred to. Its 

 author describes metrosideri as having 16 elytral striae, and 

 in describing piliger says that it has 14 striae. I can count 

 16 striae on the Blue Mountains specimen only by including 

 two short and obscure striae close to the apex in a part where 

 in piliger, and also in Eucalypti, there is only confused punc- 

 turation. Burmeister does not, I think, attribute much im- 

 portance to this character, as he does not allude to the num- 

 ber of elytral striae in enumerating the differences between 

 metrosideri and Eucalypti, and he could hardly fail to include 

 it if there were a difference in the number of well-defined 

 entire striae, for that would be a much stronger and more 

 conspicuous distinction than any that he specifies. He says 

 that in Eucalypti the clypeus is more closely punctulate, that 

 the long erect hairs of the upper surface and ventral seg- 

 ments are wanting in metrosideri, and that the hair fringes 

 of the legs are longer and the tarsal bristles feebler in 

 Eucalypti. The specimen before me, which I take to be 

 metrosideri, presents all the above-mentioned differences from 

 Eucalypti. It is an extremely good, well-preserved specimen, 

 and therefore I have no doubt that the absence of erect 

 pilosity on the dorsal surface and the ventral segments is a 

 valid specific character. Burmeister does not mention in com- 

 paring the species that the transverse prominence near the 

 apex of the elytra is evidently better defined and more carina- 

 like in metrosideri than in Eucalypti, though in the descrip- 

 tion of the former he mentions it as very conspicuous. 

 Another character of metrosideri omitted by Burmeister (if 



