Description of three new species and a Synopsis of the Buprestid genus Astraeus, C. & G

Messrs. Castelnau and Gory established the genus Astraeus for the reception of a beautiful Australian Buprestid, A. flavopictus of those authors. — Mr. Edw, Saunders in his »Revision of the Australian Buprestidae described by the Rev. F. H. Hope” placed Stigmodera Samouelli Hope in the genus Astraeus. — In the Munich Catalogue mention is made of these two species only, but in the »Catalogus Buprestidarum” of Mr. Saunders still a third species is enumerated, viz.: A. navarchis Thoms. This species, which was described as a Conognathus, is unknown to me, but judging from description and figure it is undoubtedly an Astraeus. — More recently MacLeay described A. Mastersi, but this is merely a variety of A. Samouelli Hope, which differs from the typical form in having the second sutural spot confluent with the spot below the shoulder. A peculiarity, not mentioned by any of the authors, is the enlargement of the elytra below the shoulders which covers the sides of the breast. — In A. flavopictus the elytra are only slightly enlarged in a curved line, but in A. Samouelli this appendix is broader and cut off in a straight line posteriorly, just along the metasternum. A peculiar facies goes side by side with these elytral-types, and I found it the best characteristic for the divisions of my tabulation.