350 REVISION OF THE CICINDELIDjE OF AUSTRALIA, 



deal with the distribution of the genus Megacephala in Australia; 

 its absence from South-Eastern Australia, and its great develop- 

 ment in the tropical parts of the continent are evident and 

 striking points in this connection. 



Tribe Gicindelini. — The four genera represented in Australia 

 are Gicindela, universal (but not in Tasmania); Nickerlea from 

 North Australia; Distypsidera, eastern coastal districts north- 

 ward from the Clarence River (one species has been reported 

 from New Guinea); Rhysopleura, an isolated form from the Cairns 

 district of Queensland. 



The broad facts of the distribution Of the Cicindelidse in 

 Australia support the importance of Spencer's Torresian and 

 Bassian Subregions; but the Cicindelidae of the Eyrean Subregion 

 are too little known for any conclusions to be drawn from the 

 distribution of the family in that subregion. The two evident 

 points are (1) their great scarcity in South-Eastern Australia, and 

 complete absence in Tasmania ( = the Bassian Subregion of 

 Spencer); (2) their great development in the Torresian Subregion. 

 In that part of South-Eastern Australia which I have named the 

 north and middle Bassian districts* ( = the mainland portion 

 of Spencer's Bassian Subregion) only four Cicindelids have yet 

 been found, namely, 0. semicincta Brulle, and C. mastersi Cast., 

 (evidently invaders from the north), with C. ypsilon Dej., and 

 and C. albicans Chaud. The Torresian Subregion, on the other 

 hand, is rich in genera and species, all the genera of the Austra- 

 lian Continent, including thirty-four species, being found therein. 

 1 1 seems that there is some check to the development of 

 Cicindelidse in Southern Australia, but whether this is (a) some 

 climatic influence, (b) scarcity of food at the proper time of the 

 year for the larvae, (c) or the presence of some insect or other 

 enemy, I do not know; but it is evident that the southern spread 

 of the Cicindelidse in Australia is arrested by conditions of an 

 adverse character. 



* Of. Check-list of the Australian Carabidse, Pt. i. p,3, being Supplement 

 to Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1905. 



