332 LIFE-HISTORIES OF AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTERA, 
yellow hairs, which are also sparsely scattered along the sides of 
the body; tarsal claw black, small and sharply pointed; all the 
segments along the dorsal surface except the last two covered 
along the summit with short brownish spines. 
The larvae, together with the perfect beetles, were found in the 
nests of the large mound-building Termite; they were very 
numerous in several nests opened, most of the larvae being in the 
outer walls, but others were in the interior of the nest, while the 
beetles were crawling about all parts of the termitarium, the 
swarmino- hosts of white ants seeming to take no notice of them. 
The beetle is 4^ lines in length, dark brownish-black, with the 
head produced into two shell-like flanges in front of the eyes; 
thorax finely punctured; elytra traversed with deeply and closely 
punctured parallel stria}. 
ifr^.—Shoalhaven, N.S.W. 
Melobasis iridescens, L. & G. 
Larva white, slender and flattened on the underside; jaws small; 
head globular, much broader than the thoracic segments ; pale 
yellow, with two ferruginous lines crossing the head and coming 
to a point at the forehead; first and second thoracic segments 
rounded and narrow; third thoracic and the first six abdominal 
segments rounded on the margins, but square at the apex, which 
projects over the following segment on either side; seventh and 
eighth much smaller, while the anal segment is produced in a 
curious forked tail, divided into a rounded lobe at the base, 
terminating in a slender tail on either side. 
The larva feeding between the bark and sapwood forms a series 
of parallel wavy tunnels in wood that is just beginning to wither; 
when nearly full grown it bores in the sapwood to pupate. 
The beetle is about 4 lines in length, of a bright metallic green 
colour, with the head and thorax very finely punctured; elytra 
irregularly striated, with the stria? bearing punctures; with the 
ridges between them also punctured; apical edges of the wing 
covers very finely toothed. Bred from infested branches of Acacia 
longifolia obtained at Rose Bay. 
