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.