50 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
VoL. 2 
ment was forced into granting the wishes of the experts. 
It was the rank and file of the Club who influenced public 
opinion in this, as they have done in other matters. 
There are many other matters in which we, as a Club, 
should mould and sway public opinion. For example, we 
can insist on more bird sanctuaries being proclaimed, and 
can watch the laws in regard to close seasons, not only making 
the public keep these laws, but making them i*ealise where 
they are inadequate. There is a huge amount of work to 
our hand in making the community realise that mosquitoes 
are not a necessary evil, and that their extermination should 
be demanded in the interests of public health. 
To educate public opinion we must first be sure of our- 
selves, and in conclusion, I submit that a Field Naturalists' 
Club is not a place in which only those trained in science 
should teach the untrained (we have, our schools and 
universities for that), but a meeting ground for the furtherance 
of Nature study. Each member knows something to interest 
his neighbour, and must not be afraid to tell it. “ Give what 
you have to someone ; it may be better than }^ou dare to 
think.': 
LIFE HISTORY OF TRICHAULAX MARGINIPENNIS 
AND NOTES ON OTHER CETONID^, ETC. 
By R. lllidge. 
Read 28th September, 191G. 
Having occasion last June to destroy a decaying 
Flacouriia cataphracta, which was becoming unsightly as 
a garden tree, various larvae of coleoptera were disclosed 
during the process, and amongst them were larvas of the 
large and handsome cetonid beetle, Trichmdax margini- 
penni^. As we had previously bred this species from the 
decaying wood of the same tree, one of the grubs was retained, 
tlunking it might prove of interest, with the cocoon and 
perfect insects for a short paper, especially as its life history 
does not appear to have "hitherto been recorded. 
All the cetonid beetles which we have bred from larvae 
belong to a rather useful class, for they assist in the disin- 
tegration of decaying timber, and do not attack healthy 
growing trees. (It will be better to explain, before proceeding 
further, that the Flacourtia was gradually dpng from the 
insidious effects of white ant poison, and not from the attacks 
of these insects). The grub exhibited is about three parts 
grown, and should, in about two months or so from now 
(September) have formed its curious, large, indurated. 
