AUSTRALIAN CARABID BEETLES XII. MORE TACHYS 
By P. J. Darlington, Jr. 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. 
This is, in effect, a continuation of Part XI (Darlington 1962) 
of my series of short papers on Australian Carabidae. The present 
part deals with some additional groups of Tachys. 
Tachys australis group 
This is a group of small, rather convex, usually rufous (sometimes 
blackish), shining species, with 5 or more punctate dorsal striae on 
each elytron. Previously known species of the group are those named 
in couplets 47 through 57 in Sloane’s key (1921, 199) to Australian 
Tachys, plus Tachys yarrensis Blackburn, which (I think) Sloane 
placed incorrectly. 
Technical characters of the australis group (partly derived from 
Sloane’s key, 1921, pp. 197- 199) include upper surface not punctulate 
(except head in pubifrons) ; mentum 2-foveate at base; prothorax 
usually cordate, sometimes transverse (but if so, not notably wide 
across base) ; prothoracic angles without submarginal carinae; elytral 
margins behind humeri serrate and setulose (differently so in different 
species) ; 8th stria nearly entire or abbreviated anteriorly, formed 
anteriorly by a row of punctures, not bowed away from margin ; ely- 
tron with 2 dorsal punctures; apical stride well developed, ending 
anteriorly about midway between suture and margin, with a strong 
puncture on its inner side behind middle of its length. Inner wings 
fully developed in most species but apparently dimorphic in semi- 
striatus and reduced (or perhaps dimorphic) in olliffi ; with 1 seg- 
ment each front tarsus slightly dilated, slightly squamulose below; 
and cf with 1, 9 2 setae each side last ventral segment ( cT cT exam- 
ined of all species except yarrensis and olliffi, of which my specimens 
are all 99)* 
This group occurs throughout all or most of Australia including 
Tasmania, but is commonest in eastern and southeastern Australia. 
The members of the group live in damp or wet places, but I am not 
sure of the ecological limits of all the species. I have personally col- 
lected all of them except olliffi, but some of them were taken in flood 
debris so that I do not know their precise habitats. The group is not 
known to reach New Guinea (I have just completed what amounts 
’This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant NSF 
G 1393. 
Manuscript received by the editor March 19, 1962. 
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