THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST. 
pose. This was done onlly after a good 
deal of time hail 'been .spent in mbtend- 
ing to. Sblie necessary ipn-eautious against 
accidents. Di'sjiite tilie lateness of the 
season, several elntehes of eggs were 
were procured. It was astonishing 
to find how quickly the time passed 
whilst exploring the rookeries, and, 
though they .were only reached in ipant, 
when we had collected some specimens it 
was .time to rtiturn to camp. Besides 
the cormorants, many gulls, gannets, 
and terns were observe:!, also a few pen¬ 
guins. oy-.t .-r-catchers. dotterel 1 -. etc., 
whilst further inla-ni.l the most common 
birds appeared to i»e swifts, parrakce'ts, 
honey-eaters of several species, diamond 
birds, tree and wood swallow*, wrens, 
and several species of cuckoos. The 
chief kinds of fish caught .wore flathcad, 
varied ovith am occasional cod. skate, or 
dogfish. On Tuesday nnanting we re¬ 
turned to Hobart, iwhich was reached as 
the 1’ost Office dock was striking !>. 
On a jNew and ^Remarkable $enus of fBlind 
^Beetles from fRustralia and Tasmania 
of tfie family Wriefiopterygidce. 
13V ARTHUR M. LEA. 
Recently, having occasion to identify a 
species oi’ the family Trichopterygidae, 
from King Island, I carefully examined 
.Matthew's monograph of that family, 
and one of the genera figured struck me 
instantly as being familiar. This genus, 
Idmulodes,* is remarkable in that its only 
(at least then known) member has no 
eyes or wings, that its mouth parts are 
concealed, and that the intercoxal pro¬ 
cess of its prosternum is very wide, and 
produced backwards on to the metaster- 
num. with its hinder apex bilobed. On 
examining my collection of the family, 
I found that at least four species (pos¬ 
sibly five, of which, however, one is 
represented by a unique specimen) 
agreed in all these remarkable features, 
and that their outlines were very much 
the same as those ot Limulodes. They 
all evidently belong to one genus, but 
this genus differs from Limulodes. al- 
taough evidently very close to it, in 
having the antennae more than nine- 
jointed and of different shape, and the 
abdomen entirely covered by the elvtra-t 
All the species occur in ants’ nests.t and 
all appear to he quite common, al¬ 
though on account of their exceedingly 
small size they are readily overlooked. 
1 have taken them in the nests of at 
least five kinds of ants (usually under 
stones), and in West Australia, New 
t, South Wales, and Tasmania. 
1 have very great pleasure in dedicat¬ 
ing the genus (certainly the most inte¬ 
resting one known to me from Tasmania) 
to our chairman, Mr. Leonard Rodway. 
JAs also does Limulodes paradoxus. 
Tin several specimens of one species 
the tip of tiic abdomen is exposed, but 
this was probably due to improper 
treatment. ' u 
•Plate 1(1 and plate 23, fig. 13. 
Jlodwayia, n. g. 
Head small, widely transverse, im¬ 
mersed in prothorax, its outline continu¬ 
ous with outline of that segment, mouth 
parts concealed, eyes wanting, antennae 
thin; first joint stout, concealed by head; 
second stout, outline slightly dilated to¬ 
wards base, longer than wide, the length 
of three following joints combined; third 
thin, very little longer than wide; fourth 
the width of, hut slightly longer than, 
tlnrd; fifth subequal in length with 
fourth; third to fifth parallel-sided; 
sixth slightly shorter than fifth, and 
slightly dilated to apex; seventh short¬ 
er than sixth, and slightly more dilated; 
eighth subtriangular, and forming small¬ 
est and basal joint of club; ninth 
transverse, wider than eighth, apex 
rounued; tenth subpyriform, the length 
of three preceding joints combined. Pro¬ 
thorax very large, regularly convex, sides 
rounded, false truncate, (but posterior 
angle-* produced, and embracing elytra, 
fvutellum absent.* Elytra small, nar¬ 
rower than, and outline continuous with 
that of prothorax. Pro sternum with 
tlie sides produced downwards like flaps; 
intercoxal process very wide, produced 
backwards over metasternum, hinder 
apex bilobed; abdomen entirely conceal- 
v 14 1 
