150 



so towards the lateral margins. The surface of a specimen in good 

 condition is of an ashy colour, being densely clothed with 

 brownish and whitish hairs very evenly intermingled. On this 

 ashy ground the tubercles and fascicles show as dark spots, their 

 vestiture being fuscous with an intermixture of ochreous. The 

 whitish pubescence somewhat predominates along the central line 

 of the pronotum, and in the form of a wide, very indistinct fascia, 

 a short distance behind the base of the elytra. The pubescence 

 so closely and thickly clothes the surface that its sculpture is 

 entirely invisible, excepting the two large tubercles on the 

 pronotum and the three smaller ones on each elytron. The 

 scutellum is white. The tubercles are a little larger in some 

 examples than in others. 

 S. Australia. 



TROPIDERES (?) 



It is with great hesitation that I refer to Tropideres, the 

 minute Anthribid described below. Nevertheless, it seems to 

 lack any character that would definitely exclude it from the 

 heterogeneous aggregate of species which the genus, as 

 characterised by M. Lacordaire, is made to contain, at any 

 rate, unless the fact of the 2nd joint of its antennae being much 

 longer than the basal joint be in itself deemed sufficient. The 

 following are its structural characters : — Head wide, rostrum 

 scarcely transverse, at its base as wide as the head, scarcely 

 emarginate in front, its sides parallel, its scrobes lateral fovei- 

 form and concealed, its plane not evenly continuous with that of 

 the head ; antennae not long enough to reach the base of the 

 prothorax, joint 1 short, joint 2 very evidently longer than 1, 3 

 a little longer and more slender than 2, joints 3-8 gradually 

 shorter, 9-11 forming an oblong but compact club, 9 longer than 

 10, which is transverse ; eyes fairly large and prominent, finely 

 granulated and widely separated from each other ; prothorax 

 gently transverse, narrowed from base to front, but not strongly, 

 its surface even, its antebasal carina arched with convexity 

 hindward (very close to the base but distinct from it in the 

 middle, forming a right angle with its lateral extension which is 

 not strongly defined and does not very nearly reach the middle 

 of the lateral margin) ; elytra slightly gibbous close to the base 

 on the disc, but otherwise even or nearly so, obscurely punctulate 

 striate ; front coxae almost contiguous to each other ; legs some- 

 what short and of nearly equal length ; tarsi moderately long, 

 their basal joint considerably longer than the second ; body 

 convex, gently oblong-ovate, pubescent ; metasternum on the 

 middle line about as long as the basal ventral segment. 



T. evanescent sp. nov. Piceus, antennis (clava excepta) pedi- 

 busque rufescentibus ; pube sat elongata albida disperse 



