43 



the median fascia becoming more or less wider than in the type. 

 These last-named examples agree with the description of 

 tasmanica in having the elytra dark violaceous with three pale 

 fascire. I have specimens of the above forms taken in company 

 quite promiscuously, from Tasmania as well as S. Australia, 

 Victoria, and Southern N.S. Wales. Whether this insect is 

 identical with S. Mitchelli, Hope, appears to me very doubtful 

 in spite of Mr. Saunders' assertion of its identity, for he says that 

 Mitch ell i has elytra unarmed at the apex (which is not the case 

 with the present species) and Hope mentions a fovea on the 

 pronotum near the hind angle which is not to be found in the 

 present insect. The type of S. Mitch elli was from W. Australia, 

 and I have not seen S. Strickland i or anything like it from that 

 colony. S. Stricklandi may be distinguished from all the other 

 hitherto described Sticjmoderce as follows : apex of elytra truncate 

 and feebly bi-acute, prothorax dark with lateral margins pale, 

 under surface dark (except sides of prothorax and of abdomen 

 and sometimes a spot on the hind coxre), elytra having transverse 

 zones of dark and pale colouring (more than two zones pale, the 

 apex dark) their interstices moderately convex and their apical 

 points feeble, head scarcely concave longitudinally. All the 

 numerous varieties (that I have seen) of Stricklandi are covered 

 by the above description, and I know of no other species that it 

 will fit. 



S. ostentatrix, Thorns. This insect is very near Stricklandi,. 

 but is a good species, differing by, inter alia, its strongly costate 

 elytral interstices and strong sutural spine at the apex of its 

 elytra, as well as in the colouring of its prothorax. I have a tine 

 example of it in my collection, but do not know its exact habitat, 

 which seems to have been unknown to M. Thomson also ; there 

 is an example also in the S. A. Museum marked " W.A. ? " 



S. Karattce, Blackb. In Tr. Roy. Soc, S.A., 1890, pp. 149-50, 

 I pointed out the distinctions of this species from S. Stricklandi 

 (which I called S. Mitchell i on Saunders' authority, though I 

 now doubt the identity.) If S. Mitchelli be distinct from S. 

 Stricklandi, Karatta is still distinct from Mitchelli, being very 

 differently marked and coloured from the type and (even if 

 Mitchelli prove to be variable in colour and markings) differing 

 also, inter alia, in the absence of a fovea near the hind angles of 

 the pronotum. 



S. ragosipennis, Thorns., Arch. Ent., 1857, p. 111. This seems 

 to be clearly a synoym of S. obscuripennis, Mann. Bull. Mosc, 

 1837, p. 32. I believe this synonymy has hitherto escaped 

 notice. 



S. Carpentaria, Blackb. This seems to be the insect referred 

 to by Mr. Waterhouse [Ann. Nat. Hist, (s) VII.] as a local form 



