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THE TASMAN rAN N ATURALIST.

:Rn entomologist' s ~ y e l i n g t9rip to ~ l o n e u r r y -(Queensland).

By HENRY HACKER.- - - - - - - - - ~

Business lllat Ve,rs requil'ing my presenceUloncul'l'Y, 1 dedded toO 'tuke boat fromBrbb:1ne to Tu,\\'nsviUe, and cycle frUlllthcr'e onwards, annexing such ins'eets asIwere cUllIe a,cru,ss un ,tILe journey. Timedid not allow ut allY regula.!' eolle0ting,:l>ut a lew small bottles ,01 formaJin weretaken to preserve the insects in . WhenTo"vnsviUe was l'81adl'ed, tu save tilllieand incident-a,lIy 'tu escape the riguurs,0 cycling u\'e1' the Haughtun Range, the,train wa,s taken ,toO Chartel;s Tuwers, thequeen city of North Queensland, now

' S 0 l l 1 ~ \ Y I : H t uf a fallen queen. However,a start frum that t,own was made on 'themorning of Februa,ry 7; a t th e end ufthe da y Pentland, a distance of 76 milesfrom tlle Towers, was reached; ,tolle coun'try \mt w'e,en proOved to be ridgy andI:mshy. During the heat of the day a spellfur an huur 0'1' so was taken at a shadycreek. Here a very beautiful Symphyleteswas taken un a tea-tree overhanging the'water; a yellow Spanish fly, ZUIlQtis, wasCOllllllon un HI'i' coarse grass; a prettylitHe Laius (bellultls) was firs't t,aken:he1',e, and proved to be plentiful throOugh. Jut tile trip, aHbough nut previously reeOl'l\ell from Que,ensland; uther ,capturesa t this plnee were twO' species uf Crypt.uCphalus (one IJruba;bly new to science,HIe ()It'ler heing the handsume gracilior),'Ela:phodes larinus (hItherto known only,frolll Xorth- \Vestern Australia and plentiful un gum ,sapling,s), t wo kinds ufR.ropsis, two of Rhyparida, and anOxyops, all un young gum tree,s, whilst1he beautiful littJ.e Tachys bipustulatuswas plentiful on mud a't the water'sedge. The next day's juurney was a hardune. The ruad pruved tu be sO' ruugh thatI had tu leave i t and ride on the fuutpathalongside the railway line. I t was nut"n enviable journey, fur I had tu jumpoff every few yards ,to dudge culverts"nd luose stonc:s on 'tihe line, and constant irritation WIo,S caused by gm,ss

~ e d s . I was not so-rry ,toO reach TorrensCTeek-th'e North Que,ens'land meatI\vorks-\vbere a night wa,s put in . During the day i ln widely-drstri,buted tigerluee't1e, Cicindela semicincta, was plentifu l in muddy phwes, whilsot anoOther andapparently a new species like Hacker!was rtmning a,bout on sandy ruads. Theuther insects taken were HathUudesquadrilineatus, comun on reeds, five kindslof Mylloccrus, a Steno,()orynus, very

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p:entiful on bushes and abundant al lover Nurth Queensland; .Bhilonthus, subcinguhtu8, pJ.entiful in d,eooying vegeta'tion; a beJ,lltifully s.p0ckled Belus; a tortoise bee,tle, Coptucycla; a small Calumelit,

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THE TASMANIANsuch a pe-st that at night-'time mO's,t business places were cO'mpelled to' close up.TO' stop the nui"ance Dne ingeniDus businei ,S man pr0cul'ed twO' pD,werful acetylene gas huups and put them Dn th e iDDt-path outside hi, ~ l l O ' P , w{,ile turning thecinside ligijes low. He thus managed tokeep nlllst Df t , ~ t e inseds outside. At'present RichmDnel is the terminus DfQUe'en,oland',s nDrthern railway, nltllOug(1the line to' Cl"ncurry is unerer CDnstrueti011; so ,3{tcr leaving th e former plaecthe l'C'ad began ' ( 0 assnme quite a busylappearance, from ti"c number Df tellttllsters anel camel caravan" carrying sup'pli,es to the CIDncurry copper-fields, wberBltllere j u : ~ t now con ,lider,tble nliningactivity. joUl'llE'y sWI lay over tlJeil1:0nDtDnous downs ,country, th e mDstplentiful ul"p'de here being the beautiful,an'd very variable IDngicorll, ZygrHa diva;CenognlHs rotundicDliis, a 'peculiarly IDottied CryptocelJulus, and th,e remarkdlble'\licrotragu,,, pictu,; were found crawling,on th e g1'Ound all O\'er the down,;. Herea very pretty little La,ius was taken ona weed, and seen nowher,e else. F,ourdClyS from Richmond Lillyvale Qut-s'Dationwas r8ached. Up' to b1ere the weath,erhad been dry and exceed.mgly hot,but here the real troubles commenced. The rain fell in torrents, andall the watercourses were flooded. I twas impossibIe to ride or even to PU,,(lmy bicycle through th.e wet black soil.

' ~ , o I shouldered it a't sunrisle and start 'edto walk ,to t ~ l e next stopping-plaee,F ~ ~ h e r ' ~ Creek, a distance ,of forty mile,s.\Vilt:! t,he help of a little riding in the'harder parts of th e country, my haltingplace \ \ ' I l ! ~ .rea0hp'd ait uuitllnight, wft.er haying to ],eavc th e bICycle on the road. Onarrival the hotel wa,s closed, and I was

~ o m p e l l e d to s],ecp in wet clotl,:es on thefODtpath, ~ e x t day I walked b3ck tothe bicycle, picking up on th'e roadPhortocosomus gmndis, a beautiful gr'een>Chlaenioidius, Gna'thaphanus pulctJer, and'the granel tiger bee tie, :Me,gace'phala,cylindrica, which t,he wet lnd eVidentlydriven DUt Df tb1eir ho]'es. Here it maybe mentiont'd that , although the'y werelooked fDr, no specie.s of Carenum ,orAmycterida,e were seen thl'Oughout 'thejourney, probllbly owing to' the l a ' b e n e s ~of t ie ,season. Fisher's Cre,ek, which isabout 18 miles from Cloncurry, marksthe westerly bound,ary of the North'\Vestern DDwns. After leaving tlere th ecountry assumes the desert sandstone!formation, with light forest, which isch.aracteristic of th e Cloncurry belt. I ttWas quite a plc3sant eohange after sevendays toiling through those awfulblack-soil downs, to encounter goodhard roads for the last fe w milesof my journey. Cloncurry was r e a c h ~

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NATURALIST.ed about midday on February 2 ( ) ~after having ridden over five hundredmile5. The chief lueetles captured inth e CloncHlTY di"trict were tw o speciesof Symphylet'8,s, 01118 of which was tllepretty species before mentiDned, Zygl'ita(liV'I, YIicrotr,'gus pictuB, one dead sp,crimen of a S'dgmDdera washed up by t I : , ~Cloncurry River, one specimen each of,two brilliant species of ChalcortlOrai a i r n l l ~ l i r e i la'Hd SaundeTsi), "\vhich weretaken on the wing, a small Storeus C0111mon under ba,'k, an Oxyo'ps much likethe South AustralL1n Bilun,uis, Bryadms.squamicollis, abundunt everywhere on

' ~ ' l p l i n g s ; an appar'ently new Lepto'ps,,with small prothDrax and very largeelytra; anob'. '"1' species somElwhat like:Vlu&icuon, and a Polyphrades, crawlingalong tbe gJ'OluIlJel. A blue and yellow_luhw,l,pb1ora, th,e male O'f which has veryremarka,blE' ant,enna,e w,a,s found on avine locally called "Chinese cucumber.",1\ small s,pottcd H'hyparida under bark,tl ];al'g" Ela,paod,es, and three species DfDitropidus, one being very large andresembling ant,ennal'ius, and anothel 'having an oenormoushead; with powerful

j ~ ' w - . s , all ,taken on foliage, 'wb2Te also H,yello,w Calomela with black knees wascommDn; a Gestrinu.s was taken underlogs, as \Y,as also a Ci&telid close to',Homotrysis, but ha,ving most remarkableHulp'tul"e; ,two spe,cies oi click beetleswere taken h'ere, both of the genus ~ I D n o -cre'pidius, an l one of wl1'ich was fiyinga t dm k in great numbers; two specie-s ofOnthophagns (Consentaneus and Cornperei) were capturNl in rduS'e, and

~ \ h e n i u s semiraecus round lights, and i tyery CuriDU.5 and probably nE"W Rupiliaon watermelon vine's. elDncurrv isnaturally a. rath2r rough though iivelylittle 'town, o'II'ing no dDubt to t i J ~ presentboDlll in the copper m a r ~ . ; : e t . ,Moneyis v{,f'Y plentiful UloeI1e. On my arrivallomines,s matters engro'ss,ed all my attenticm, so not much collecting wa,s done,,the above repre"enting pr;lct,ically all 'theinsec'ts ca pt ur'ed.

NOTE BY ARTHUR Yr. LEA.::Hr. Hacker has sent me for examlnaj;ion all tb'e species mentiDned above,.and many ,othe1'3 taken during ,his t r ~ p ,

altDgeth,er 128 spe'Cies. The colLectiDncontains some very be,autiful inse>C'ts,pl'o])ably morle than half of them IbeingP,foW to -scienee. In addition ,t,o tbo,se'mentioned, he took the v,ery pe