1956] 
Darlington — Australian Carabidae 
3 
parts of the world and to have differentiated to some 
extent in different regions. I base this guess, of the more 
recent rise and dispersal of Agonini, chiefly on the lesser 
diversity of this tribe as compared with the Pterostichini. 
If all this is correct, it may be guessed that Pterostichini 
are dominant in Australia partly because Australia is 
more temperate than tropical in climate, and partly be- 
cause the Pterostichini reached Australia before Agonini 
did; and it may be guessed that Agonini are dominant in 
New Guinea partly because the climate there is fully 
tropical, and partly because the carabid fauna of New 
Guinea is more recent in its origins than that of Australia. 
Add to this that the mountain carabid faunas of Aus- 
tralia and New Guinea have been derived independently, 
each from the lowland fauna adjacent to it, and not by 
dispersal along a connecting mountain chain, and we have 
an adequate and probably correct explanation of the un- 
expected difference in composition of the carabid faunas 
in the mountain rainforests of Australia and New Guinea. 
Whether or not this explanation is correct, the situa- 
tion among Carabidae suggests that, although Australia 
and New Guinea were connected by land at times in the 
Pleistocene (perhaps as recently as ten thousand years 
ago) and although some species crossed the connection, 
rainforest and mountain habitats were not fully con- 
tinuous and whole faunas were not exchanged. 
Sloane (Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W., Vol. 35, 1910, pp. 
453-458) revised the Australian Agonini (“Sphodrini”) 
known to him, recognizing 4 genera and 10 species not 
including Homothes, which he transferred to this tribe 
(“Anchomenini”) in 1920 (Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W., Vol. 
45, p. 164). However, some of his generic assignments, 
although correct according to the usage of his time, are 
now known to be wrong and misleading. I therefore offer 
the following new key to the Australian genera of Agonini 
(Sphodrini, Anchomenini). This key is still preliminary 
in some ways, but it puts the Australian forms in line 
with the New Guinean ones and disposes of the most mis- 
leading assignments. 
The following key applies only to Australian species of 
