121 



finer puncturation of its pronotum, and by the very wide mem- 

 branous hindmargin of each ventral segment, — which is certainly 

 not due to the abdomen of the specimen before me being dis- 

 torted or unduly dilated. I have little doubt of the specimen 

 described being a male, in which case the species is distinguished 

 from many of its congeners (but not from porcata, Fab.) by the 

 absence of patches of close sexual puncturation on the ventral 

 segments. In my tabulation of Natalis (Tr. R.S., S.A., 1899, 

 pp. 29-30) the inclusion of this species would cause the substitu- 

 tion for the last line of the following : — 



AA. Disc of prothorax closely and evenly punctulate. 



B. Prothorax much longer than wide ... ... debilis, Blackb. 



BB. Prothorax very little longer than wide .. ... porcata, Fab. 



S.A. (basin of Lake Eyre); taken by Herr Koch near Farina. 



THANASIMUS. 



There seems to be reason for regarding all the Australian in- 

 sects that have been referred to this genus as incorrectly placed 

 there. T. accinctus, Newm., has already been made the typical 

 species of a new genus (Metabasis, Gorh.), and Mr. Gorham has 

 already referred (correctly, I have no doubt) T. sculptus, Macl., 

 and his own T. rufimanus to the genus Aulicus. Necrobia eximia, 

 White (which has been attributed to Thanasimus by some 

 authors, — e.g., Gorham) is certainly not a Thanasimus in my 

 opinion, — but here I am writing from memory (having examined 

 a specimen not at this moment available) and so will not at 

 present discuss its position more particularly. I know of only 

 three other Australian species that have been placed in 

 Thanasimus (viz., acerbus, Newm., confusus, Newm., and 

 cursorius, Westw.), and they undoubtedly belong to the genus 

 Stigmatium. They are all described insufficiently for confident 

 identification among congeners so numerous and superficially 

 so closely resembling each other as are the species of Stigmatium, 

 but it seems to me probable that acerbus and eursorius are 

 founded on the same insect and that it is also the same which M. 

 Kuwert has since described as S. dispar. I think I know 

 S. confusus, Newm., as a species that I have met with in Vic- 

 toria (Newman's locality) not rarely, and it is probably identical 

 with one or more of the species that have since been described as 

 Stigmatia by other authors, but without examination of types it 

 is difficult to arrive at a confident opinion. 



CLERUS. 



I regard it as extremely doubtful whether any true Clems 

 occurs in Australia. Eight Australian species are ascribed to the 

 genus in Masters' Catalogue, one of which (crassus, Newm.) dis- 

 appears in Lohde's Cat., having been reported (Tr. R. Soc, S.A., 



