236 



NOTES ON THE GENUS CARDIOTHORAX : WITH 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN 



COLEOPTERA. Part II. 



By H. J. Carter, B.A. 



(Plate xx.) 



The genus C ardiothorax has gone through considerable evolu- 

 tion. Starting from the type Adelium Walckenaerii Hope, it 

 became successively Thoracophorus Hope, Atryphodes Pasc, and 

 finally G ardiothorax Motschulsky.* The genus is widely distri- 

 buted throughout the highland and coastal regions of Queensland, 

 New South Wales and Victoria, but there is at present no evidence 

 of its existence in the other States. The furthest western limits 

 from Avhich I have received specimens is (excepting one species, 

 described below, from Victoria) Condobolin on the Lachlan. The 

 very able revision of this genus by Mr. Bates in the Ent. Month. 

 Mag. 1879 has made the work of his successors comparatively 

 light, but in so variable a family of the Heteronera it is, I think, 

 a mistake to describe a species from a single specimen, or from 

 (J) specimens only, the variations in size, shape, colour, and sexual 

 distinctions being very great, e.g., I have C. grandis Bates, vary- 

 ing in length from 12 mm., to 23*5 mm. with proportional varia- 

 tion in other respects. Again, I have a specimen of G. cordicollis 

 Pasc, which is distinctly blue, the normal specimens being black. 

 Again, the strong sexual features shown in the toothed femora, 

 curved tibiae of the £ of certain species make identification 

 impossible when species are described from £ specimens only. Yet 

 four species, C.ameus Bates, C.fraternalis Bates, C. chalceus Bates, 



* Pascoe, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1869, p. 37. Motsch., Etudes Ent. 67, 

 nota, Helsingfors. [I regret being denied access to Motschulsky's paper, 

 of which apparently no copy exists in Sydney.] 



