THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST. 
such a pest tlmt at night-time most busi¬ 
ness places were compelled to close up. 
To stop the nuisance one ingenious busi¬ 
ness man procured two powerful acety¬ 
lene gas lumps and put them on the foot¬ 
path outside hi- -hop, wuilc turning the 
inside ligi its low. lie thus managed to 
keep most of the insects outside. At 
•present Richmond is the terminus of 
Queensland's northern railway, although 
the line to Cloncurry is under construc¬ 
tion; so after leaving the former place 
the road begun 'to assume quite a busy 
•appearance, from the number of team¬ 
sters and camel caravans carrying sup¬ 
plies to the Cloncurry copper-fields, where 
there is just now considerable mining 
activity. My journey still lay over tlia 
.monotonous downs country, the most 
plentiful beetle here being the beautiful 
and very variable longictmi. Zygrita diva; 
Cenognius rotundieollis, u peculiarly mot¬ 
tled Cryptoeephalus, and the remarkable 
Microtragus plctus were found crawling 
on the ground all over the downs. Here 
a very pretty little Lai us was taken on 
a weed, and seen nowhere else. Four 
days from Richmond Lilly vale out-station 
was reached. t'p to here the weather 
had been dry and exceeuingly bot, 
but here the real troubles commen¬ 
ced. The rain fell in torrents, and 
all till! watercourses were flooded. It 
was impossible to ride or even to pu-h 
my bicycle through the wet black soil, 
so 1 shouldered it at sunrise and started 
to walk to the next stopping-place, 
Fisher's Creek, a distance of forty miles. 
With tiie help of a little riding in tin 
harder parts of the country, my Ualting- 
plaeo wtitt reached at midlnight, after hav¬ 
ing to leave the bicycle on the road. On 
arrival the hotel was closed, and 1 was 
compelled to sleep in wet clotfiis on the 
footpath. Next day I walked back to 
the bicycle, picking up on the road 
Plun tocosomus grandis, a beautiful green 
Chlaenioidius. Ona'chaphanus pulclier, and 
'the grand tiger beetle, Megacephala 
cylindrical, which the wet bad evidently 
driven out of their holes. Here it may 
be mentioned that, although they were 
looked for, no species of Carenum or 
Amyeteridae were seen throughout the 
journey, probably owing to the lateness 
of tii- season. Fisher’s Creek, which is 
about 18 miles from Cloncuny, marks 
the westerly boundary of the North- 
Western Downs. After leaving here the 
country assumes the desert sandstone 
formation, with light forest, which is 
characteristic of the Cloncurry belt. It 
was quite a pleasant change after seven 
days toiling through • those awful 
black-soil downs, to encounter good 
hard roads for the last few miles 
of my journey. Cloncurry was reach- 
( 13 ) 
ed about midday on February 2b, 
after having ridden over five hundred 
miles. The chief beetles captured in 
the Cloncurry district were two species 
of Syniphylete.s, one of which was the 
pretty species before mentioned, Zygrita 
diva, Microtrr.gus (rictus, one dead speci¬ 
men of a Skigmodera washed up by tiie 
Cloncurry River, one specimen eoch of 
•two/ brilliant species of Chaleophora 
iFairmairei and Saunders!), which were 
taken on the whig, a small Storeus com¬ 
mon under bark, an Oxyops much like 
the South Australian llilunaris, Bryachus 
-quamieollis. abumhint everywhere on 
saplings; an apparently new Leptops, 
with -null prot,borax and very large 
elytra; anotti.-r species somewhat like 
Musiaion, and a Polyphrades. crawling 
along tiie ground. A blue and yellow 
All lac ip bora, the male of which has very 
remarkable antennae, was found on a 
vine locally called "Chinese cucumber.” 
a small spotted Rhyparida under bark, 
a large Klapiodes, and tlirce species of 
Ditropidus, one being very large and 
resembling antennarius, and another 
having an enormous head, with powerful 
jaws, all taken on foliage, wfere also a 
yellow Caloinela with black knees was 
common; a Cestrinus was taken under 
logs, as was also a Cistelid close to 
Homotrysis, but li n ing most remarkable 
sculpture; two species of click beetles 
were taken here, both of the genus Mono- 
erepidius, and one of which was flying 
-at dusk in great numbers; two species of 
Onthophagus (Consentaneus and Com- 
perei) were captured in refuse, and 
Atacnius semieaeens round lights, and a 
very curious anil probably new Rupilia 
on watermelon vines. Cloncurry is 
naturally a rather rough though lively 
little town, owing no doubt to tf»e pre¬ 
sent boom in the copper market. Money 
is very plentiful there. On my arrival 
’business matters engrossed all my atten¬ 
tion, so not much collecting was done, 
the above representing practically all the 
insects captured. 
NOTE BY ARTHUR M. LEA. 
Mr. Hacker has sent me for examina¬ 
tion all the species mentioned above, 
■and many others taken during his trip, 
altogether 128 species. The collection 
contains some very beautiful inserts, 
probably more than half of them being 
new to science. In addition to Urose 
mentioned, he took the very peculiar 
Bledius insignieeoinis, hitherto known 
only from Victoria, a remarkable spotted 
jumping beetle, probably an Arsipoda, a 
Saraguh remarkably close to one occur¬ 
ring in the Northern Territory, and many- 
typical beetles of North Queensland. 
