Australian insects

This group is the best known of all the orders, for nearly every entomologist starts collecting as a “beetle hunter.” They are the most frequently observed because they are found everywhere; there is hardly a log or stone that does not shelter some beetle; they infest all kinds of timber, damage the living trees in the forest, devour foodstuffs, stored grain, skins, furs and drugs; others are attracted to all kinds of decaying animal or vegetable matter; while hundreds either in the larval or perfect state are to be found all through the year upon the flowers, foliage, or bark of trees and plants.

Thus they are readily collected, and when obtained are much more easy to look after and keep than the more delicate insects, on account of their stout horny structure.

Beetles are typical insects in that the head, thorax, and abdomen are very well defined, and can be readily distinguished from each other; the insect is more or less protected with a stout horny integument. But the joints are flexible, so that though the parts fit close and the body appears ensheathed in regular armour plate, most of the species are very active. They are all furnished with cutting, biting, or chewing jaws, and are therefore called mandibulate insects; and with very few exceptions have well developed eyes and antennae, the latter produced into all kinds of curious shapes in some groups, but usually slender, filiform and many jointed. The thorax consists of one solid segment, the three portions, so apparent in some insects, being soldered together to form one uniform mass when viewed from above. The large abdomen is said to contain ten distinct segments on dissection, but when viewed from the under-surface generally only five can be seen. Instead of the thin flying, or membranous fore-wings of other insects, the first pair in the beetles are transformed into two horny plates completely covering the dorsal surface of the abdomen and called the elytra. When at rest they fit close together over the back, but can be readily opened out in flight. Though of little use in flying, they probably assist a large heavy beetle in balancing or steering through the air, and always cover the two large pointed membranous hind flying wings, which when not in use are folded up beneath them. In some beetles the elytra are not divided, but form a solid shield; and the hind wings are wanting, or if they exist are simple pads. The various families have the head, mouth parts, and legs admirably adapted to their different habits and diet.

Their larvae are also as variable in form as the perfect insects; many are active, slender grubs with three pairs of legs, and large powerful jaws, as in the carnivorous species; elongate cylindrical jointed creatures with scaly heads, or short and wrinkled grubs like the wood borers; others quite slug-like feed upon the surface of the foliage; and a few are clothed with fine hairs.

In the pupal state, for all beetles undergo a complete metamorphosis, they are inactive, mummy-like creatures showing the outlines of the future beetle, with the wings, antennae, and legs closely folded down, and the whole enveloped in a thin membrane. Some form regular cocoons from the material among which they feed; others seal up at both ends the cavity in which they have been feeding before they pupate; but many do not even take this precaution.

The classification of the Coleoptera has been undertaken by many entomologists. In Gemminger and Harold’s great Catalogue of the Coleoptera, seventy-five families were enumerated; Sharp has recently adopted eighty, but when it comes to the larger sub-divisions none of them agree. Westwood in his Classification has an alarming array of sections, tribes, stirps, and sub-families: Kirby gives fourteen sections in his Text Book; while Sharp simplifies the matter by forming six series, some of them on the old lines, but his third series is apparently more of a dumping ground than anything else for those that will not fit into the other five, for it includes such dissimilar families as the Staphylinidae, Buprestidae, Coccinellidae and many others.

As Masters’ Catalogue of the Described Coleoptera of Australia is the list used by all Australian collectors, I shall follow his grouping of the families (originally based on that of Gemminger and Harold), defining the groups of each important or distinct family, though through want of space many of them can be only briefly noticed.

There have been so many describers of Australian beetles, that their names alone would take some enumerating; so that I propose to omit them here and notice them later on when dealing with the families upon which they have worked. Australia is rich in large and handsome specimens, which attracted the attention of the colonists at a very early date in the history of the country, and quite a number of collections were made and the specimens forwarded to England. Most of the exploring expeditions that traversed the back country had a collector of some sort on their staff, and it was usually beetles that formed the bulk of the entomological specimens obtained. Again the Scientific Exploring Ships, fitted out by our own and foreign countries, that visited the different ports, collected many zoological specimens, so that many of our larger beetles were known and described many years ago. Over 7,200 are listed in Masters’ Catalogue, and since its publication some thousands have been added to our list.

Family 1. Tiger Beetles.
CICINDELIDAE.

This family is well represented in Australia by about forty-five species, chiefly described by Macleay (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1871), and later on (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1887–8); and Count Castelnau (Trans. Royal Soc. Victoria). The typical Tiger Beetles are slender graceful insects, with broad short heads, furnished with large projecting eyes, and great powerful jaws; the thorax is produced into a cylindrical neck; and the short rounded elytra cover large wings.

The larvae are elongated creatures, with large curving jaws; they live in burrows in the ground, generally in the vicinity of a waterhole or creek where there is a sandy shore; here they remain hidden during the day, and come out at night to capture and devour the less powerful insects they come across. One of our largest and most handsome species is Megacephala cylindrica, found in the western country, where it hides deep down in the cracks of the soil; it lives chiefly upon ants. It measures over ¾ of an inch in length, and is of a rich metallic green colour: the mouth, antennae and legs are brownish yellow. A second species, M. frenchi, has been recently described by Sloane, and ranges from North West Queensland into Western Australia. The Genus Tetracha contains a number of handsome, shorter, broad-bodied Tiger Beetles with green metallic tints and reddish brown or yellow legs, and similar coloured markings on the wing covers. They form burrows, like their larvae, along the sandy margins of rivers and water-holes, coming out and running along the water’s edge at twilight, and often flying into the lamp at night. Tetracha australis has a wide range from the Murray river to the interior; I have dug them out of the sand round an artesian bore near the Queensland border. It is smaller than the previously described one, which it somewhat resembles in general colour, but can be easily distinguished by the larger jaws, shorter body, and the elytra tipped with yellow near the apex.

T. australasiae and T. hopei are smaller species, dull green, marked with reddish brown on the wing covers; they are found in North West Australia, while several other species are recorded from Queensland.

The Cicindela are not common about Sydney; two species, however, are to be found; Cicindela ypsilon, about ½ an inch long, is so named from the dark markings on the cream-coloured wing cases resembling the Greek E; they are to be found running about on the seashore in hundreds in midsummer, and can easily be caught by throwing a handful of sand over them: though so numerous, I have never been able to find their larvae. In captivity one ate raw beef quite readily, burying its jaw in the strange food and sucking up the juice.

C. circumcincta is a smooth, dark green beetle with the outer edges of the wing covers marked with yellow; it is sometimes taken about Sydney, but is not very common.

The smallest Australian species is C. tenuicollis, described by Macleay from specimens I collected on a sandy flat near the Barrier Ranges in N.W. Australia; it is a rich, metallic red insect with slender legs and small thorax. On a sandy road near Cairns, N. Queensland, several small species were so plentiful that they often flew up in clouds, and I have taken scores in half an hour with a butterfly net.

The tropical Genus Distypsidera is represented by about a dozen species, chiefly confined to North Queensland, where they hunt over the stems of trees; when approached they run round the trunk to keep out of sight; they are broader and more thickset than the Cicindela, and their eyes are very large and prominent; D. flavicans is the only one that comes down as far as Northern N.S. Wales.

The researches of Hacker in North Queensland have added several new and interesting species of Tiger Beetles from the Coen River, some of which are closely allied to New Guinea forms.

Family 2. Carnivorous Ground Beetles.
CARABIDAE.

These are broader and thicker set than the Cicindelidae, varying in size from several inches to a line in length; the head is smaller than the thorax; and most of them are black or reddish brown, while others are richly marked with metallic tints.

They are most numerous in open forest country, hiding under logs or stones during the day and hunting over the ground at night: when camped in the bush, where logs are plentiful, the entomologist can often trap many interesting species by sinking empty tins into the soil, into which they readily tumble.

The larvae are slender creatures with three pairs of simple legs; their bodies are protected with stout horny plates, and the head is furnished with large powerful jaws; they are found in the same situations as the adult beetles, and devour all kinds of insects that they can capture; the larger ones even eat small frogs. This family has been divided into a great number of sub-families which it is hardly necessary to enumerate here.

Australia is very rich in Carabidae; over 1,600 species have been described. Chaudoir described many in Russian and Belgian; Newman, Westwood, Pascoe, Hope, and Bates in English; Castelnau, Macleay, and Sloane in Australian scientific journals; so that the literature dealing with these beetles is very scattered, but the references can be found in Masters’ Catalogue.

Calosoma schayeri is our type of this cosmopolitan genus. They live in cavities in cultivated fields, and are very useful insects where numerous, for they devour the larvae and pupae of many species of cut-worms. It measures about 1 inch in length, has a small head, narrow rounded thorax, and very broad, short, rounded abdomen; the whole is bright metallic green. It has a wide range over Australia, and may sometimes be even taken in the Sydney streets.

The Genus Pamborus contains many distinctive black beetles, some of which are marked with coppery green tints; they measure up to 1 inch in length, and are broad in proportion. When captured, many of them discharge an acrid fluid or gas that stains the fingers reddish brown.

Pamborus viridis is black, with the wing covers thickly ridged with parallel punctured striae marked with green.

P. alternans is a larger beetle, 1¼ inches long, with the same small head, and rounded thorax tapering and narrow behind; the coppery-tinted elytra have very broad parallel ridges.

Drypta australis is a small beetle about 5 lines in length; it has a pointed head, large projecting eyes, and the thorax forms a cylindrical neck hardly broader than the head; the wing covers do not quite cover the tip of the abdomen. In general colour it is yellowish brown, with the antennae, legs, a broad stripe down the centre and the edges of the wing covers dark purple to black; the wing covers are very finely striated and punctured. They live on the edges of swamps, and sometimes fly into the lamp at night.

A beetle with a very wide range is Helluo costatus; it is a medium sized brown beetle; the head and thorax are about the same length, the latter rounded on either side in front but narrowed behind; the wing covers are flattened, broadly ridged, and not reaching to the tip of the abdomen.

Our Common “Bombardier Beetle,” Pheropsophus verticalis, is another widely distributed species; it measures over ½ an inch in length, and is of a general dark brown tint, with the head, antennae, and thorax dull yellow; the wing covers, which do not reach to the tip of the abdomen, are blotched on either side and the tip with the same colour. It can be found in any damp spot under stones or logs; and as soon as disturbed, it discharges a small cloud of vapour with a distinct report, and which feels quite warm to the fingers.

The Genus Scopodes contains a number of tiny beetles that are common on the plains and about crabholes and swamps.

Scopodes sigillatus has the wing covers roughened, and measures about 2 lines in length; with its large projecting eyes it might be mistaken for a small Tiger Beetle.

We now come to a group, Pseudomorphides, comprising a number of genera that live under the loose bark on tree trunks; they have adapted themselves to their confined hiding places, so that they have become flattened and rounded, and even remarkable in colouration; and so, unless a collector carefully examines them, he would never at first sight think of including them among the Carabidae.

The Genus Silphomorpha, in which over 40 species have been described, are yellow and black, or yellow and brown beetles up to ½ an inch in length; all their parts fit close together into a convex or oval form very like some of the water-beetles.

Silphomorpha colymbetoides and S. nitiduloides are found about Sydney. The first has the head and thorax reddish brown, the elytra pale yellow broadly blotched in the centre with black: the second, much larger (¼ of an inch in length) is blackish, and the centre only of each wing cover blotched with dull yellow.

The members of the Genus Adelotopus are mostly black, narrow, and shield-shaped, with the tips of the wing covers truncated; while in Philophloeus, though very thin and flattened, they have the head and thorax well divided from the broad abdomen; and are dull yellow, striped, and barred with darker brown.

Turning from these we come to the giant of all our carabs, Hyperion schroetteri, which lives in cavities in tree trunks, where it is often found by splitters in the red gum forests in Victoria and N.S. Wales. I have taken it at night round the camp fire on the Murray frontage. It is shining black, and measures 2½ inches in length, but being narrow in proportion it appears much longer than it really is; while with its large elongate head and immense jaws it is a very formidable-looking creature.

The next in order is a large and interesting group, the Scaritides, which are not only wingless, but have the wing covers soldered together into one solid armour plate; their legs are adapted for digging, and many of them live in underground tunnels of considerable length. In most species the head, armed with large powerful jaws, fits close into the thorax, so that they move together; and in some groups the insect appears to be formed only of two parts, for the head and thorax taken together are as long and broad as the abdomen. After a heavy fall of rain in the interior, some species may be found in numbers under logs and stones, driven out of their holes and deep burrows. They are much sought after by collectors; and Macleay, Blackburn, and Sloane have described a number of curious species.

Eutoma tinctilatum, found about Sydney, and typical of the elongate slender Scaritides, was described by Newman many years ago, and figured by Westwood in his “Arcana Entomologica 1841”; it is a shining black beetle about 8 lines in length.

Carenum bonelli, the commonest Sydney species of this genus, measures about ¾ of an inch and is broad in proportion; it is black, with bright metallic green tints on thorax and elytra.

The members of the Genus Philoscaphus are short and broad, with the elytra covered with rows of warts.

P. tuberculatus has a wide range over the western country; it measures over 1 inch in length; is black; the head and thorax are broader than the body; the latter oval, with the elytra finely rugose.

Euryscaphus titanus, a shining black beetle, is nearly 2 inches in length, and measures ¾ of an inch across the elytra; while E. lobicollis, a smaller beetle, has the body still broader in proportion to its size; both these and several other fine species are not uncommon on the Western Australian goldfields about Kalgoorlie.

The allied Clivinides, recently monographed by Sloane (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1896) are like elongate miniature Carenums furnished with dilated fore-legs adapted for digging; they are generally taken along the edges of swamps and watercourses under logs or the debris on the soft mud. They are world wide in their distribution, and are most plentiful in the warmer portions of the globe: Australia is rich in species: Sloane lists 55 species in his paper.

Clivina basalis has a wide range over S. Australia, Victoria, and N.S. Wales; it measures ¼ inch; is black, with the basal portion of the elytra and the legs red.

C. australasiae, slightly larger, is all black; it has a similar range, and is also recorded from New Zealand and Lord Howe Island.

The next group comprise the typical Chlaenius; they are rather long-legged beetles with a small head and somewhat heart-shaped thorax forming a slight neck behind, and with a broad, oval, convex abdomen. They are active beetles, generally found under stones or wood near water-holes; many of them have a greenish dull metallic tint. Chlaenius puncticeps is black, with the legs and an irregular blotch at the apical half of each wing cover dull yellow. C. maculifer, from Queensland, is smaller; C. laeteviridis is dull green with the edges of the wing covers yellow; C. marginatus is a larger and brighter green beetle with the wing covers marked with yellow in a similar manner.

Promecoderus concolor, typical of the genus, is a shining black beetle about ½ inch in length, of a curious cylindrical shape with the head turned down in front. These beetles are found all over the interior in dry country under stones or logs. The allied Genus Parroa was formed by Castelnau for several curious beetles taken in the interior near the Paroo River. Parroa noctis, from Kalgoorlie, W.A., measures over 1 inch in length, and is a rounded solid-looking black beetle. The bulk of the species once included in the Genus Harpalus is now divided up into a number of groups; most of the small black carabs running about in the suburban gardens in the early summer belong to this division.

The Feronides comprise a number of our largest carabs: Catadromus australis measures nearly 2 inches in length, is broad in proportion; it is shining black with the wing covers broadly ridged, and their margins and the hind portion of the thorax richly marked with bright metallic green. C. lacordairei is smaller, and similar in general form, with the thorax smaller and the metallic colouration on the thorax running right round to the hind margin of the head. Both these beetles are found along the edges of swamps and lagoons in the Murray country living under dead logs, where their black banded larvae may also be found, sometimes feasting on small frogs.

All the beetles known under the Genera Homalosoma and Trichisternus have been placed in the new Genus Castelnaudia by the Russian entomologist Tschitscherini, as both the former names were preoccupied. This group contains many large handsome beetles, chiefly confined to our coastal forest country, where they live under dead logs.

Castelnaudia renardi is one of the common species in the Tweed River scrubs; it measures 1½ inches in length; is black with the parallel striae on the elytra widely apart; the head very large, is turned down and furnished with long powerful jaws.

C. imperiale, from Southern Queensland, is a very handsome species; it is about the same size as the former but has the thorax and elytra more flattened; and the head, thorax, and margins of the wing covers are rich metallic green.

In November I took several specimens on the top of Mt. Tambourine, S. Queensland, under deeply buried logs by the roadside, where they live in broad excavated galleries; in two nests I found three larvae and eggs. The former, probably by their size only a few weeks old, were elongate, flattened, light brown to ochreous coloured creatures, with the head and dorsal surface of segments chocolate brown. The head is broader than long, flattened, and furnished with long curved brown jaws, and has also a stout incurved tooth near the base of each jaw. They were very active creatures and lived for over a month in captivity. The eggs were dull yellow, ⅜ of an inch long, broadly rounded, and were enclosed in a thin clay shell like the rind of an orange.

The Genus Notonomus has been recently revised by Sloane (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1902); in this paper he enumerated 72 species, a number of them previously undescribed. These beetles are apterous, and confined to the coastal forests of Eastern Australia. Sloane says: “From the Grampians in Western Victoria, along the coast of Eastern Australia as far north as the Burnett River in Queensland, and many species are very restricted in their range.”

Notonomus australasiae is one of the commonest species around Sydney; it measures under ¾ of an inch in length, and is of a uniform black colour; the broad thorax is arcuate behind the head, swelling out and broadly rounded on the sides; it has a rich blue metallic tint, and a distinct medium suture; the wing covers are distinctly striated, forming broad parallel ridges.

Passing over a number of more or less important genera we finish with the Genus Bembidium, which contains a number of small active beetles generally found along the edges of swamps.

B. ocellatum is a shining black beetle under ⅙ of an inch in length, with a broad head, and the thorax rounded on the hind margin.

Family 3. Water Beetles.
DYTISCIDAE.

This group contains the first division of the Water Beetles; these have the antennae bare and filiform; short palpi and undivided eyes; the legs fringed with hairs, the front pair not longer than the hind pair, adapted for swimming. They live in the water both in the larval and beetle stage; the former are slender, elongate creatures, with a body consisting of twelve segments; the head is broad and furnished with powerful hollow jaws; they are very voracious creatures, devouring all sorts of aquatic insects, and even the smaller and weaker of their own species. When full grown they pupate in cells which they form in the soft mud.

These beetles are perfectly at home in the water, and breathe by coming to the surface; turning head downwards, and with the tip of the wing covers slightly raised, they draw in a supply of air which occupies a cavity on the back, and when the elytra are closed down, the beetle can remain under water until the supply is exhausted. Many species can be easily captured in the water with a small hand-net; on a warm summer night numbers leave the water and come flying in to the lighted lamps. Many are very small, few over ½ an inch in length; they are quite as numerous in the colder waters of the globe as in the tropics, and many species have a very wide distribution.

We have representatives of most of the typical genera; our species have been described by Clark (Journal of Entomology 1862), and Sharp (Trans. Dublin Soc. 1882).

The members of the Genus Bidessus are small, brown, boat-shaped beetles not much over ½ an inch in length; about 18 species are listed in Masters’ Catalogue; Bidessus bistrigatus has the head marked with black and the wing covers clouded with dark brown; it has a wide range over Australia. Antiphorus gilberti is more than twice the size, has the wing covers mottled, and is common in the waters of Victoria and South Australia. Macroporus howetti is dark brown, more shining and slightly larger, the dark markings forming two irregular black bands connected by a dorsal stripe. Hydroporus collaris, from the north-west coast of Australia, measures under 2 lines in length; it is all black with the dorsal surface convex and finely rugose. Platynectis 10-punctata was described by Fabricius at a very early date from Australia; it is common along the edges of the Murray lagoons, where it is to be found in the soft mud under the water-weeds. It is a smooth, shining black beetle, with very convex wing covers. Rhantus pubescens is an oval beetle, under ½ an inch in length, of a dull brown colour, with the whole of the wing covers granulated with black. Colymbetes lanceolatus is a more elongate insect of a similar brown colour, the back of the head and wing covers marked with irregular parallel black lines, thickest in the middle. Copelatus acuductus is a larger shining black beetle, typical of the genus, of which about twenty species are described from this country.

Cybister tripunctatus is one of our largest species; it measures over 1 inch, and is broad and flattened in proportion; it is of a blackish or dark olive colour, margined right round from the front of the head to the tips of the wing covers with a dull yellow stripe. As children we often pulled these beetles out of the water hanging on to the bait used for catching crayfish, and we called them “clocks,” why I do not know. This species has a very wide range over Australia, and it is recorded from Lord Howe Island. It was once known under the name of C. gayndahensis. A second species has been described by Blackburn under the name of C. granulatus from the Northern Territory of South Australia. Eretes australis is another widely distributed species; it measures about ½ an inch; is broad and flattened, and is of a general yellowish brown tint, marked with black between the eyes, and the wing covers are finely punctured with close black spots.

Family 4. Whirligig Beetles.
GYRINIDAE.

This family, small in number of species, is well known to all lovers of Nature, for it contains the water beetles that float about in shoals on the margin of any quiet stream or waterhole, or dart about like bits of silver, twisting and turning round in most remarkable gyrations, from which they take the popular name of Whirligig Beetles.

They are distinguished from the last family (which they resemble in the earlier stages of their development) in having very short antennae; the fore-legs much longer than the two hind pairs; and in having the eyes on either side divided, thus having two eyes looking down into the water and two above, so that they can see both sides at the same time, an admirable adaptation of vision for beetles living so much on the surface of the water and liable to be attacked from above or below. The tip of the body is not covered by the elytra, and when diving downward they carry a bubble of air attached to the extremity. These beetles are well represented in Australia, and have been described by Clark previously mentioned, Regimbart (Annals Soc. Ent. France 1882), Macleay (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1871), and Boisduval in the “Entomology of the voyage de l’Astrolabe.” Our common species about Sydney, Macrogyrus canaliculatus, is of the usual boat-shaped form, silvery black, with the wing covers finely striated; it measures about ½ an inch in length. M. oblongus is a somewhat smaller species not so broad in form; is browner, and the wing covers are very slightly striated; it is also found in the vicinity of Sydney. M. paradoxus was described and figured by Regimbart from Australia with no exact locality, but I have collected it on the North West coast of Australia, and seen others from Southern Queensland, so that it has a wide range. It is not much over ¼ of an inch in length; is dark olive; the outer margin is dull yellow, and it has a few fine striae on either side of the elytra. I have found the pupae of one species, probably M. oblongus, in clay cells attached to a bit of board on the bank of a waterhole in the western country of N.S. Wales.

Family 5. Clubbed-horned Water Beetles.
HYDROPHILIDAE.

This family is also known under the Group Palpicorna in reference to the clubbed antennae, and made to include a second family, which are very closely allied but are terrestial in their habits.

These beetles have five jointed tarsi; short clubbed antennae, with the palpi slender and much longer than the antennae. Most of the beetles are vegetarian in their diet, though many of them in the earlier stages of their existence are carnivorous.

These are the largest of the Water Beetles; and the typical species are ovate and very convex in form; the thorax very broad; the tibiae slightly spined on the edges, terminating in a stouter spine at the apex; the tarsi ciliated. They are poor swimmers when compared with the two last groups.

Most of our species have been described by Macleay (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1871), and Blackburn (Pro. Linn. Soc. 1888). Hydrophilus latipalpus is of the usual boat-shaped form; shining black; and the wing covers are very finely marked with punctured parallel striae. It measures nearly 1½ inches, and is found about Sydney. H. albipes is a much smaller beetle of similar form and colour; it is found in the Murray River districts.

Family 6. Rove Beetles.
STAPHYLINIDAE.

These peculiar beetles can be readily distinguished from most of the other families by their abbreviated elytra, which do not protect more than a third of the abdomen leaving the hind portion quite bare; while the well developed hind wings are tucked away out of sight under them, but can be quickly extended and used for flight. The apical segments of the abdomen are very flexible, and most species have the habit of turning up the tip of the body when running along; others have the power of discharging a strong scent, in some cases with quite a pleasant odour.

They are slender elongate insects with stout jaws, and the antennae thickened or clubbed at the extremities; the tarsal joints are variable in number. Rove Beetles are found in many different situations, but chiefly upon the ground in the vicinity of manure, decaying vegetable matter, dead animals, and even on the seashore hiding under stones and seaweed, though most of them only seek these places to devour other small creatures, for they are carnivorous in their habits. Some of the foreign species are found living in the nests of ants, but I do not think any with this peculiarity have been recorded from Australia.

The principal writers on our Staphylinidae are Macleay (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1871), and Fauvel in his work on “Les Staphylinides de l’Australie et de la Polynesie” (1878). In 1886 Olliff commenced his revision of the Staphylinidae of Australia (Proc. Linn. Soc.), but this only ran into the third part and was never finished. Others have been described by Blackburn (Trans. Royal Soc. S.A. 1887). About 400 species have been recorded from this country representing most of the typical sub-families.

The Genus Aleochara contains a number of small short black beetles with thickened antennae; those in Homalota are even smaller but more slender; several species are found under cowdung.

Quedius luridipennis measures over ⅓ of an inch in length; the shining black head and thorax are almost globular, the latter the larger; the broad flattened fore wings are red; the margins of the abdomen are flanged and slightly spined, and the tip fringed with three tufts of bristles.

The Devil’s Coach-horse, Creophilus erythrocephalus, is our largest common species and has a very wide range; it measures over ¾ of an inch in length and is very broad in proportion; its general colour is black with the head bright red, the eyes and a rounded spot between them black; the elytra have a metallic purple tint. It can be often found in stables, or hunting round dead animals in the bush; when disturbed it cocks up its head, turning up the tip of its body at the same time in a very comical manner, from which habit the allied European species has probably derived the above popular name.

Actinus macleayi is slightly longer but more slender, and is our most beautiful species of this somewhat dull coloured family; the head and thorax are rich metallic coppery green, the elytra deep metallic purple; the basal portion of the abdomen is black, and the tip, antennae, and legs bright yellow. It is a native of the tropical scrubs of North Queensland; in the neighbourhood of Cairns I captured specimens in tins I had baited with bits of meat and had sunk in the ground to trap Carabidae, and into which they had been attracted by the food.

Xantholinus erythrocephalus lives in the stems of rotting grass trees, where the beetles can be collected in all stages of development; the beetle measures over ½ an inch in length; is of a much more elongate form; black; the elytra dull red, and the tip of the abdomen yellow.

Paederus cruenticollis is one of our commonest species, and is often found under stones in the bush; it is a very distinctly marked little beetle about ¼ of an inch in length, slender in form with long thickened antennae; black, with the thorax and centre of the abdomen red, and the elytra deep metallic blue.

Sartellus signatus is a curious little yellow beetle quite unlike the typical Rove Beetle; it is short and rounded in form, with the fore wings much longer than usual; is of a uniform light yellow colour, with a curious reddish brown mark in the centre of each elytron. It is common on our sandy beaches, where it hides under the seaweed and rubbish and feeds chiefly upon dead barnacles.

Family 7. Ant Beetles.
PSELAPHIDAE

This group includes a number of small beetles that have the elytra usually not covering more than half of the abdominal segments; the antennae thickened toward the tips; maxillary palpi large, and the tarsi three jointed. The ordinary collector is very apt to pass over these small creatures, but many interesting forms are found in this country by sifting rubbish, or examining debris along the water’s edge, which can be gathered up in a stout bag and afterwards shaken over a sheet of white paper. I have captured them along the edges of lagoons in summer time by pouring buckets of water over the dry cracked mud, and as they were drowned out gathering them into small tubes. They can also be taken with a sweeping net when on the wing; in Europe many species are found in ants’ nests. Westwood believes that they feed chiefly upon Acari and other small creatures.

Large numbers have been described from this country, chiefly through the researches of the Rev. R. L. King (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1865). Messrs. Sharp, Westwood, Schaufers and Blackburn added to this number; while in 1900 Raffray published his Monograph on the family (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1900), in which he described 45 new species, and brings the number known up to 200.

Pselaphus lineatus, a reddish beetle, measures 1½ lines in length, and is found about Sydney; it has a wide range over N.S. Wales, Victoria, and South Australia.

Lea (Pro. Royal Soc. Victoria 1905) records four species of the Genus Articerus found in ants’ nests, all of which appear to have a wide range; A. curvicornis, originally described by Westwood from ants’ nests in Melbourne, is also found in Tasmania, S. Australia and N.S. Wales.

Family 8. Comb-horned Beetles.
PAUSSIDAE.

These are remarkable looking beetles, easily distinguished by their broad flattened toothed antennae curving round on either side. The head is short and angular on the sides; the thorax flattened; and the elongate elytra truncate at the apex and not quite covering the tip of the abdomen. Most of the species are of moderate size, and reddish brown in colour; they are confined chiefly to Africa, the East Indies, and Australia. Most of the African species are said to dwell in ants’ nests, but though I have had several records of species being found under stones in ants’ nests, most of ours are found under logs, bark, or crawling about on the grass or ground. This family attracted the notice of entomologists at a very early date; Latreille formed the family to contain the two genera Paussus and Cerapterus, which he called Paussili, afterwards changed by Leach to Paussides. Donovan described the first species from this country in 1815. Westwood has written a great deal about them; he monographed the family (Proc. Linn. Soc. 1849–1850); in his “Arcana Entomologica” he described a great many from Australia and other countries; others in the “Annals of Natural History,” 1851; and again figured others in his “Theosaurus Entomologica,” Oxen. 1874. Macleay added 32 new species (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1873), all belonging to the Genus Arthropterus; while Blackburn placed 3 more to the list 1891–1892, one of them in the typical Genus Paussus.

Arthropterus brevis is one of our smallest species; it measures slightly over ¼ of an inch in length; the antennae are rather short and broad; the thorax broad and rounded on the sides; the elytra expanded slightly to the truncate tips, leaving the apical portion of the abdomen exposed. This is our commonest species, and can be sometimes obtained in numbers near Sydney under the papery bark of the ti-trees.

A. humeralis comes from the Wellington district, and measures under ¾ of an inch; the antennae are large; the head angular; the body long, narrow, and rounded to the extremity, with the elytra short and truncate above the tip of the abdomen. General colour dark reddish brown, lightly clothed with short scattered brown hairs.

Family 9. Ant Beetles.
SCYDMAENIDAE.

The members of this family are minute creatures of which little is known. Sharp says: “Allied to the Silphidae, with the hind coxae separated, and the facets of the eyes coarser; tarsi five jointed; the number of abdominal segments visible six.”

It is owing to the Rev. R. L. King that we first knew anything about this group in Australia; he described about 15 species (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1864); to which 2 more have been added by Macleay and Sharp.

Heterognathus carinatus was described by King from the nest of small black ants found in the neighbourhood of Parramatta; Lea has lately recorded it from the nests of ants (Iridomyrmex nitidus) taken in the Mallee country of North Western Victoria. He says: “It can be distinguished from all its congeners by the prothorax having a short longitudinal carina at the base, on each side of which is a transverse impression.”

Family 10. Burying Beetles.
SILPHIDAE.

The typical European species are popularly known as Burying Beetles from the curious habit they have of excavating the ground beneath any small dead bird or animal they find, and finally burying it under the soil. This family contains a number of interesting beetles both large and small; the antennae are thickened or clubbed; the tarsi 4 or 5 jointed; and the whole dorsal surface flattened. They are poorly represented in this country, but there are several large distinctive species found about dead animals or decaying vegetable matter. A large number of blind Silphids are found in the caves of Europe and America, but I have never found any as Australian cave fauna.

Thirteen species have been described from this country by a number of different writers, chief of which is Blackburn (Trans. Royal Soc. S.A. 1891–94).

Necrodes osculans comes from Queensland; I found it common about Cairns, feeding amongst decaying matter in the scrub. It measures over 1 inch; is a broad flattened beetle of a general black colour; the elytra mottled with dull orange, ribbed, and truncate at the extremity, showing the tip of the abdomen. The head is small, turned down in front, but furnished with large clubbed antennae; the thorax is finely punctured and rounded in front.

Ptomaphila lachrymosa is a dull reddish brown beetle, with the centre of the head and thorax black, the head small and somewhat hidden by the large flattened thorax; the elytra round, somewhat depressed; both marked with irregular parallel black ribs and bosses; they feed about dead animals. Length about 1 inch.

In the following family, Trichopterygidae, only two species are described, one from Tasmania, and the other from West Australia. They are minute beetles with fringed wings, the middle joints of the antennae smallest.

Family 11. Round Fungus Beetles.
SCAPHIDIDAE.

The members of this family are small, broad, short insects that live in fungus, and are very active. Macleay described several species from Gayndah (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1871): Reitter and other foreign writers have added to the list.

Scaphidium punctipenne, though described from Queensland, is also found in the neighbourhood of Sydney. It is a small rounded seed-shaped insect, but with slender legs and slightly clubbed antennae; its upper surface is deep orange yellow irregularly barred with black.

Family 12. Mimic Beetles.
HISTERIDAE.

When touched these beetles contract their legs and pretend to be dead, from which habit they take their family name from Histris, the Latin for a stage mimic. They are shining black, or metallic coloured beetles; many are flattened and broad in shape, with the elytra truncate at the apex, leaving the tip of the abdomen uncovered; the exposed integument is however very much thickened, and all the parts fit close together; the antennae are thick, clubbed at the apex; the legs short and stout. Most of the flattened forms are found under bark, others in or under dead animal matter; both the beetles and their larvae are carnivorous.

This family is well represented here: Macleay described some from Gayndah; Marseul described others in the Annals Museo Genevre 1879, and the Annals Ent. Belg. 1870; Schmidt in the Ent. Nachr. 1892; and a few are described by other writers.

Hololepta sidnensis, one of our commonest species, can be collected in early summer by chopping up the dead grass tree stems; but I have never been able to find the larvae. It measures ½ an inch, and is shining black; it is very much flattened and broad in proportion to its length; two stout horns project in front of the eyes, coming together at the tips; the thorax is slightly impressed in the centre, and punctured on the sides; the elytra is smooth and shining, but the exposed abdominal plates are spotted with large punctures. Many of this genus are found under bark or crawling about on tree trunks.

Platysoma strongulatum is a broadly flattened black insect about ⅙ of an inch long; the head is small; the thorax truncate; the elytra smooth in the centre, with four distinct striae on each side, straight at the apex, with the tip of the abdomen turning downwards. This is another common Sydney species found at the base of the flower stalks of the “grass trees” (Xanthorrhoea).

Saprinus laetus, typical of another group, is a short, thickset, rounded, oval beetle, ¼ of an inch in length, with the upper surface convex; the head is small, shining green; the thorax broad, bright metallic pale copper; and the short truncate elytra and exposed tip of the abdomen deep metallic green. This almost seed-shaped beetle is usually found under dead birds or animals lying in the bush. It has a very wide range over Australia.

Family 13.
PHALACRIDAE.

Only one species of this family is listed in Masters’ Catalogue, described by Erichson from Tasmania in 1842; but in Blackburn’s paper (Trans. Royal Soc. S. Australia 1891) 16 new species are described from all parts of Australia. They are short oval beetles, very small, the largest not much over ¹⁄₁₂ of an inch in length; black or brown in colour.

Litochrus palmerstoni is of a uniform ferruginous colour, with the apex of the elytra pale testaceous; without the punctures of the other species; of the typical oval form; and only ⅘ of a line in length and ¹⁄₂₄ of an inch in width. This tiny creature comes from the Northern Territory of S. Australia.

This family is not an important one, but is well represented in Europe and America, where the larvae live in flowers, boring their way down the stems and pupating in earthen cocoons.

Family 14. Fruit Beetles.
NITIDULIDAE.

These are all small black or brownish beetles that breed and feed upon decaying vegetable matter, and some are very partial to ripe fruit. Some have well developed wing covers, but in others these are very short, reminding one of the smaller Rove Beetles, but the club of each antennae consists of three joints, and fewer abdominal segments are exposed to view. About eighty species have been described from Australia, chiefly by Reitter (Verh. Ver. Brünn, 1874–75, and other Journals); Murray in his Monograph of the Family; Macleay (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1871); and Blackburn (Trans. Royal Soc. S. Australia 1891).

Brachypeplus binotatus is one of our commonest species, widely distributed over Australia; it is a typical form of the family, about ⅕ of an inch in length; of a general dark brown colour, with reddish brown antennae and legs; the abbreviated wing covers leaving the abdominal segments exposed, the latter marked with deep orange yellow. Olliff (Agricultural Gazette N.S. Wales 1893) describes and figures this beetle and its larva, which he describes as feeding upon the fungus on the damaged sugar cane.