DEMETRIDA (COLEOPTERA: CARABIDAE) 
IN THE MOLUCCAS* 
By P. J. Darlington, Jr. 
Museum of Comparative Zoology 
Demetrida is a genus of the carabid tribe Lebiini recognizable by 
usually rather slender form (Figs, i, 2) ; moderate size (5.5- 12.0 
mm in New Guinea) ; brown, bicolored, or brilliant metallic colora- 
tion; and technical characters given by me in 1968. Although a few 
species occur in New Zealand and New Caledonia, the genus is 
dominant primarily in Australia and New Guinea. The principal 
habitats occupied on these two adjacent land masses are surprisingly 
different. In Australia, adults (I do not know the larvae) of most 
species live on the trunks of eucalypts and other trees; in New Guinea, 
most live in understory foliage of rain forest. (In New Guinea, 
Demetrida therefore occupies the niche that Calleida occupies in 
some other parts of the world.) Some New Guinean Demetrida 
occur in the lowlands, but more, including most of the brilliant 
ones, are found at moderate or sometimes high altitudes in the moun- 
tains. The New Guinean members of the genus seem to have radiated 
independently of the Australian forms. Their radiation is in some 
ways compared to that of the brilliant birds of paradise that live 
in the same montane rain forests. 
When I revised the New Guinean species (1968), I stated that 
the genus reached the Moluccas but did not give details. I now 
record the two species known from these islands. They set the 
western limit of the genus in the Indo- Australian Archipelago. 
Demetrida latangula Darlington (Fig. 1) 
Darlington 1968, pp. 147, 158. 
Occurrence in the Moluccas: 1 cf, “Amboina, F. Muir” (Bishop 
Museum ) . 
This species is widely distributed at low altitudes in New Guinea, 
although not common there. The Moluccan individual matches New 
Guinean ones well. 
Demetrida moluccensis n. sp. (Fig. 2) 
Description. With characters of genus (Darlington 1968) ; form 
as in Fig. 2, rather convex; dark reddish brown, appendages some- 
what paler; not pubescent, moderately shining, reticulate micro- 
*Manuscript received by the editor September t, 1968 
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