On Some Beetles Collected by Colonel T. B. Hutton.

By D. Best.

[Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria 17th April, 1882.]

Colonel Hutton, having for some time been collecting Coleoptera about Dandenong, sent to the Club, by Mr. Goldstein, a portion of the collection, to ascertain if there was anything amongst them of special importance. Dandenong is situate about 20 miles from Melbourne in an easterly direction, and, had it not been that I have myself collected there on two or three occasions, I should, from the nature of the country, have certainly expected the bottle handed to me by Mr. Goldstein to contain some rare specimens. I was not, however, disappointed in finding they consisted almost exclusively of the commoner kinds, the best, perhaps, being a fine Elater (Chrosis illitd). The specimens comprised a total of 49, and may be classified as 5 Elaters, 1 Curculio, 20 Longicorns, 1 Dynasteni, 2 Rutelini, 8 Malacodermidæ, 7 Plinidæ;, 2 Tenebrionidæ, 2 Lucanidæ, and 1 Buprestidæ. The last-named must, I think, have been put into the bottle by mistake, it being the well-known and beautiful West Australian Stigmodera Roci, and, if occurring at Dandenong, would certainly be a fact well worth noting, as I have no knowledge of its ever before being taken in Victoria. Probably Colonel Hutton will enlighten us upon this point. Of the Elaters the only one, as previously stated, of any value, is the Chrosis illita, which is general in most parts of the Colony, being taken in the parks around Melbourne, also at Ballarat and other places; the remaining four are procurable all through the Summer under the bark of the gum-trees or flying about in the dusk of the evening. In the Longicorns we have one specimen of a by-no-means common variety of Sympliyletes pulverulens; one S. decipiens, plentiful enough on the wattle, in which it also breeds, during the Summer months; five of Hehecerus marginicollis, to which the same remarks apply; four of Stenoderus suturalis, an even more common insect; and a rather fine specimen of Stephanops nasuta. There are also 7 specimens of Epithora dorsalis, which I have taken in every part of the Colony where I have been collecting, but some that I got last January in the Western district differed from the present ones by being decidedly larger and of a much darker color. It was, however, beyond all question, the same insect, and this leads me to recommend collectors, in arranging their collections, to label separately the specimens of all insects they may get from different localities, as they will not only serve to show the many varieties occurring, but will be useful in determining the limits of their habitats, &c. The one specimen of Dynastini is a male of Chiroplatys latipes, and is common about Melbourne, as are also the two Rutelini; one being Anoplognathus analis, and the other A. olivieri. The former was in my younger days well known to all boys as the common Cockchafer, and common indeed it was, as we had only to go over to what is now Carlton, and at the first gum-tree in flower we could always secure them by dozens. page 100 It may still be frequently taken on the gum saplings about the Yarra in the neighbourhood of the Asylum or Heidelberg. The 8 Mala-codermidæ consist of 5 Metriorrhynchus atratus and 3 the name of which I do not know; the former may be taken in numbers from off the Leptospermum lanigerum and L. scoparium when in flower, and is generally a very common insect. Of Tenebrionidæ the only two specimens belong to the genus Pterohelœus, whilst the two Lucanidæ are both males of Ceratognathus niger. The name of the one specimen of Curculio is unknown to me, but although I have it in my collection I do not think it is by any means of common occurrence.

Before concluding, I would express the hope that the example set by Colonel Hutton, in collecting and forwarding to the Club specimens for examination, will be followed by many others over the whole Colony, as it is through such collections, humble in themselves though they may be, that a great deal of valuable information is derived. So far as lies in my power I will be only too pleased to furnish information, and in both Entomology and the other branches of Natural History I have no doubt we possess several members who entertain the same feelings as I do on this subject.