NEW GUINEA AND AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTERA. NOTES AND NEW SPECIES. By H. J. Carter, B.A., F.E.S. (Thirteen Text-figures.) [Read 26th November, 1930.] The close geographical relationship existing between the Australian Continent and the Austro-Malayan Islands gives a particular interest to the study of the New Guinea Fauna. Australian Museums can do good work in the furtherance of this study and Mr. A. M. Lea of the South Australian Museum is to be congratulated on his appreciation of this importance by the extensive insect collections from New Guinea that he has directed to the Adelaide Museum. Our generous patron, Sir William Macleay, was well aware of the value of this study and the "Chevert" Expedition, organized by him, with its resultant additions to our zoological knowledge, set a notable example to our naturalists. He further contributed two papers on the entomology of New Guinea — "The Insects of the Maclay Coast" (1884) and "Insects of the Fly River (Coleoptera)" (1886). The Tenebrionidae and Buprestidae (also one Dryopid) collected for the South Australian Museum have been sent me for determination. These scarcely bear out Macleay's remark as to the "limited Coleopterous Fauna of the Island", since there are 136 species of the first and 36 of the second, and these numbers are slightly increased by %he examination of collections in the Australian Museum, Sydney, and the National Museum, Melbourne. The single member of the Dryopidae sent is especially interesting as being a close ally of the monotypic Stetholus elongatus Cart., from Dungog, New South Wales — a strongly differ-entiated genus, so far unrecorded elsewhere. The above were mostly collected by Mr. C. T. McNamara at Mt. Lamington, Buna District, and the Rev. L. Wagner in the Finschhafen District. The absence of named collections from the Austro-Malay Islands, together with the difficulty of obtaining much of the older litera-ture dealing with this fauna, has prevented my doing as effective work as I could wish. In the Tenebrionidae the thorough work of Gebien in "Resultats de I'Expedition Neerlandaise, 1920", together with that author's gifts of many specimens, including cotypes, to me, has made it possible to identify a consider-able number. Except in a few cases, which seemed to me beyond doubt, I have thought it undesirable to describe species as new, since continual cases of proved synonymy show a wider range for insects than was formerly supposed. Thus a few beetles are known to range from India to Australia (see Amarygmus morio F. below). Again PentapTiylhis difasciatus Geb., described from the Philippine Islands, was amongst those collected by Mr. McNamara on Mt. Lamington, S.E. Papua. The extension of the Australian genus Stig^nodera to New Guinea is not surprising. I have seen others in the collection of Monsieur Thery.
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