[Illustration: =Fig. 96.=--_Symphyletes vestigialis_ (Pascoe). The Buff-painted Longicorn. (“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)] Family 50. Plant-eating Beetles. CHRYSOMELIDAE. These foliage-destroying beetles have a regular, thickened, more or less oval or rounded form, with the thorax sometimes forming a neck; but in other groups are rounded and fit closely into the head and abdomen. The head, buried up to the eyes in the front of the thorax, is furnished with short stout biting jaws, and slender filiform antennae composed of many short segments; the tarsi are generally four jointed. They are as a rule small insects, rarely measuring over ½ an inch in length; their prevailing colours are red, yellow, or brown, marked with black or bright metallic tints. They lay their eggs on the foliage or twigs of their food plants, upon which the larvae feed when they emerge, and when full grown crawl down and pupate in the soil beneath. This is a very large family; about 18,000 species are described from all parts of the world, and most of the typical groups are represented in this country. We have had a number of workers on the Chrysomelids: Baly (Ann. Nat. History 1862), (Jour. Linn. Soc. 1864), and (Trans. Ent. Soc. of London 1877): Clark in the “Journal of Entomology” 1864: Marsham (Trans. Linn. Society 1808): Chapius has described a number (Soc. Entom. Belgium Vol. xvii.), and (Journal, Museum Godeffroy xiv.): while Lea (Trans. Ent. Soc. London 1904) has monographed the CRYPTOCEPHALIDES; and Blackburn revised the Genus _Paropsis_ (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1896 and 1901), adding many new species. The SAGRIDES are very distinctive beetles, with the thorax elongated in front and broad behind; some of the more tropical forms are of rich metallic tints, with the thighs of the hind legs greatly enlarged; and our beautiful representative species, _Sagra papuana_, is known to collectors in the North Queensland scrubs as the “Kangaroo Beetle.” It measures 1 inch in length, and the swollen hind legs fringed with reddish hairs and a large angular spine are fully another inch in length. It is a uniform deep metallic blue. _Carpophagus banksiae_ measures ½ an inch in length; is of a uniform dark reddish brown, with the elytra irregularly striped and banded with dark yellow; the thighs of the hind legs are thickened, and the under surface is clothed with fine grey hairs. It has a wide range, and is found about Sydney clinging to the low scrub. _Mecynodera coxalgica_ is a larger, broader, dull reddish brown insect, clothed with a lighter tinted pubescence, and is found in similar localities.