65 
Sept. 30, 1908. The Queensland Naturalist. 
of the remarkable Bittacus australis (Panorpidse) were well 
in evidence, individuals being all busily at work “scooping 
up” small moths, and sucking theii juices {vide “ Notes 
on the Scorpion Fly — Bittacus australis ” by Edmund 
Jarvis . — Victorian Naturalist, xxv, 4, p. 69-71, 1908). 
Hemiptera , — Members of this group were not, as a 
rule, collected. On some small trees of Exocarpus Cun- 
ninghamii occurred a handsome plant-bug, whose colours 
are of the darkest green and pale-yellow, with a white bar 
crossing the fore-wings — Comnius elegans, and specimens 
also were secured of the peculiar predaceous Pristhesanchus 
papuensis — that will wound the hand of the unw'ary. A 
small cicadid, Melampsalta (1 incepta), was also common. 
Orthoptera . — The large Acridium maculatum ; the red- 
legged Cirphula pyro-cnemis ; tw'O species of Epacromia, 
reproducing in each case tlie appearance of dry twigs when 
settled ; and Tropinotus australis, w'ere the Grasshoppers 
most prevalent. A peculiar Locustid of unusual habits 
w^as also collected. This w^as green coloured, whth the 
dorsum of the prothorax rich-brown, and had pink and 
blue mandibles. It was engaged in devouring a bee, 
when captured. The colours of this particular insect 
(? Xiphidium sp.) evidently fit it for an arboreal and diurnal 
existence ; those Locustidse, with which obviously it is 
nearer related, and which live in holes in the trees or in the 
ground, whence they come forth after nightfall, to devour 
theif prey, being sombre lined. However, a remarkable 
Locustid of nocturnal habits was as w'ell discovered. This 
was a peculiar brownish-coloured insect named Prochilus 
australis, the type of a small family met with nowhere else 
than in Australia. It was encountered on the upper part 
of the caudex of a grass-tree, beneath the dr}^ foliage. It 
had a whng expansion of 2| inches, and a body length of 
If inches, the latter terminating in a sword-like ovipositor. 
Strange to relate, it in some respects resembled a small 
Phasmid insect ; for its narrow elongated wnng covers and 
its membranous closely barred hind-wings reproduce the one 
the appearance of the opaque portion, and the other that of 
tlie transparent one, of the wings of certain of the smaller 
members of this order. Its captor, Edmund Jarvis, observed 
that when at rest its wings w^ere folded beneath its tegmina, 
and that these four organs thus disposed were directed 
upwards from the thorax, having the similitude of a small 
branchlet attached to a larger one, represented by its dull 
coloured body. These remarks are based exclusively on 
the work of the leaders in Entomology. — R.I. and H.T. 
