46 



TWO BEETLES APPARENTLY NEW TO AUSTRALIA. 



By W. J. RAINBOW, F.E.S., Entomologist to the Australian Museum. 



(Br permission of the Trustees of the Australian Museum.) 



As illustrating how insects are introduced into new geographical areas by the agency of commerce, 

 there has just been presented to the Trustees of the Australian Museum a living specimen of an exotic 

 Longicorne, Eburia quadrimaculata, Linn. The species was originally described by Linnaeus under 

 the name Cerambyx quadrimaculata, 1 the habitat given being America, and it is also described ana 

 figured by Spry and Shuckard. ^ The English habitat is given as " found in Essex," with the remark 

 "doubtlessly imported." Chas. J, Gahan 3 describes it under the name " Eburia binodosa (Chevr. 

 M.S.)", and the localities there given are Porto Rica, Guadeloupe, and St. Thomas, West Indian Islands. 

 For the benefit of Australian students I quote the following brief description from Spry and Shuckard : 

 Testaceous, thorax with two black tubercles ; elytra with four ivory coloured geminated 

 spots, one at the base, and the second about the middle ; eleven lines. 



I he specimen now in the cabinets of this Museum was presented by Mr. G. Van Henckelum. of 

 Mosman, Sydney, and had worked its way out of an imported oak chair in his home. There can 

 be little doubt that the beetle was present in either its larval or pupal stage when the chair was made, 

 and that its burrow was not observed by the mechanic who worked up the timber. It is impossible, 

 of course, to sa)' how long the creature was in passing through its earlv stages, but it is well known 

 that many species of Cerambycidae take several years in their metamorphosis. 



Another importation, also of great economic interest, is a Dermestid, Attagenus piceus, Oliv., 

 popularly known in Europe as the " Carpet Beetle." One larva of this species was submitted to me 

 by the manager of one of our large local drapery emporiums, together with samples of woollen materials 

 which it was said to be destroying. Unfortunately that particular larva was dead, but upon a search 

 being made other specimens were found, and from these I was able to breed out the beetle itself. 

 The fully-grown larva of this species is 7 mm. in length, of a bright golden colour, densely pilose, 

 narrow, cylindrical, the abdomen terminating in a long pencil of hairs. The dense pile with which it h 

 clothed imparts to its body a silky, shining appearance. The beetle is just under j mm. in length, 

 pitchy black, pubescent, legs and antennae fulvous. In Junk's " Coleopterum Catalogus," Schenkling 

 Hives the range of this species as " Palaarktische Region, Nord- und Zentral-amerika." I do not 

 know how long the species is in passing through its various stages from the egg to the adult, because 

 the larvae were already partially grown when given to me. but one example cast its skin three times, 

 after which it pupated on the 3rd November, and emerged in the adult form on the 14th. Both 

 woollen fabrics in the roll and numerous garments of Jager's clothing had been attacked and rendered 

 unsaleable, and this stock had all been imported from London. Unfortunately, all the examples 

 found were not submitted to me, as the firm's employees ruthlessly destroyed any they met with. It 

 does not follow, of course, from the foregoing that the pest has become established in this part of 

 the world, though the possibilities of its becoming so are apparent, and our importers should be on 

 their guard. 



1. Linnaeus — Syst. Nat., 12th ed., 1767, p. 626. 



•!. Spry and Shuckard — Brit. Coleopt. Delin.. Suppl.. 1S40, p. 75 . pi. vh., fig. 2. 



3. Gahan — Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1895, p. 95. 



