1963] 
Darlington — Tachys 
23 
to a revision of New Guinean Tachys ) and seems to have no close 
relatives there or in the Orient. Some Oriental species are super- 
ficially similar, but quite different in technical characters: e.g. Tachys 
ceylanicus (Niet.) has a superficial resemblance to australis etc. but 
has the mentum without foveae, differently formed 8th striae, and 2 
segments of the cf front tarsus widened and with squamules. 
Although Sloane’s key to the species of this group will separate 
them satisfactorily if ii9ed with care, he overlooked some striking and 
decisive characters that I shall use in the following key, which includes 
two new species. 
Key to species of Tachys australis group 
1. Elytra fully striate yarrensis 
- Elytra not fully striate 2 
2. Upper surface of head (but not rest of upper surface) extensively 
pubescent pubifrons 
- Head not pubescent, except for usual fixed setae 3 
3. Prothorax with extra marginal setae seticollis 
- Prothorax with only usual 2 setae each side 4 
4. Elytral margins fringed with long setae punctipennis 
- Elytral margins with normal, short setae 5 
5. Prothorax with lateral margins obsolete semistriatus 
- Prothorax with lateral margins distinct 6 
6. Prothorax rather wide (W/L 1.40 or more), sides not or scarcely 
sinuate posteriorly bogani 
- Prothorax narrower, with sides sinuate posteriorly 7 
7. Prothorax with sides long-sinuate (sinuation beginning well before 
base) ; color brown; very widely distributed in Australia 
australis 
- Prothorax with sides short-sinuate; color Visually blackish 8 
8. Elytron 6-striate; wings fully developed; southwestern Australia 
habitans 
- Elytron 5-striate; wings reduced; southeastern Australia .... olliffi 
Tachys yarrensis Blackburn 
Blackburn 1892, 20. 
Sloane 1896, 357, 366. 
1921, 199. 
Blackburn described this Tachys from Upper Yarra (River), (east 
of Melbourne), Victoria. Sloane (1896) records it from Mulwala, 
Urana, and Tamworth, New South Wales, “under logs and debris 
in very damp situations”. I found 4 specimens in flood debris at Sale, 
southern Victoria, Oct. 1, 1957. 
