48 



STETHASPIS. 

 Since I dealt with this genus (Trans. Roy. Soc, S.A., 

 1911) I have obtained specimens which enable me to supple- 

 ment my former notes with some important additions. Mr. 

 Carter has sent me a male of each of the two species that 

 I regard as S. eucalypti, Boisd., and metrosideri, Burm., and 

 of which I had previously known only the females. Metro- 

 sideri was described on a female. The examination of these 

 males is conclusive as to the distinctness of the species which 

 I have regarded as eucalypti, Boisd., from the species that 

 I have called metrosideri. The male sent by Mr. Carter of 

 the former species has an antennal flabellum of 6 laminae,, 

 while in the flabellum of the other male the laminae are only 

 5, and so there can remain no doubt that the species I have 

 considered to be metrosideri and eucalypti are distinct 

 species. In my former memoir (loc. cit.J I expressed a doubt 

 about my identification of metrosideri, and the examination 

 of the male does not throw fresh light directly upon the 

 point. It, however, brings out the fact that the absence of 

 erect hairs on the ventral segments, which Burmeister re- 

 garded as a specific character, is only sexual, as this male 

 has erect hairs like those of eucalypti. Indirectly, however,, 

 the study of this male tends to confirm my identification, 

 inasmuch as the legs of the specimen in question are green, 

 and that character (together with the presence of erect hairs 

 on its ventral segments) removes practically all doubt about 

 the identification of it with S. Icetus, Blanch. — discussed in 

 my former notes — and settles the point, I think, that Icetus 

 and metrosideri are, as conjectured in my former paper, one 

 species — the latter being the female. The name Icetus has 

 priority. It should be added that the green colouring of the 

 legs of the male is probably not a sexual character, since it 

 appears also in a female of eucalypti sent by Mr. Carter with 

 the male. The male Icetus has in its elytral striae the double 

 rows of short white setae which my former paper noted as pre- 

 sent in the female, and that character is certainly a valid 

 specific distinction from eucalypti; also the punctures in the 

 elytral striae are much closer in Icetus than in eucalypti, and 

 the external teeth on the front tibiae of the male are much 

 stronger in the former than in the latter. Lcetus and 

 eucalypti differ from all the other Stethaspides known to me 

 in their much longer metasternal process. 



S. sternalis, sp. nov., Mas. Supra viridis, capite pronoto 

 elytrisque plus minusve testaceo-marginatis, sternis 

 obscure ferrugineis, abdomine pygidioque obscuris, 

 antennis palpis pedibusque rufis ; pilis erectis sat 

 elongatis albidis (in fronte pygidio femoribus et segmentis 



