(Figures 5 D, 5E)
Etymology. The species name refers to Mount Surprise, a town in northern Queensland, the type locality of this species and is a noun in apposition.
Description. Length 6.5–8.4mm. Body integument pale yellow with dark brown markings on anterior and apical parts of elytra. Ventral side uniformly yellowish brown, shortly setose. Head darker than pronotum, large and flat, with a fine impressed median line extending from base to clypeal suture. Mandible well-developed, turning dark at teeth apices. Eyes large, convex, with deep groove near frons; eyes strongly emarginate near antenna insertion, and weakly emarginate near mandible articulation. Antenna long, in both sexes extending about 2 antennomeres beyond elytral apices. Antennomeres uniformly yellow, scape subequal to antennomere 3. Pronotum transverse, uniformly yellow, weakly constricted in front, with posteriorly bent projections on lateral side; disc finely punctate, glabrous and feebly shiny. Scutellum darker than pronotum, truncate apically. Elytra with random relatively long bristles, bearing three parallel raised costae on basal two thirds of disc; coarsely and deeply punctate except the apices; elytra basically pale yellow as the pronotum, with two dark brown fasciae on each side, and with light separate spots. Legs slender, unicolor, pro- and mid-coxae oval, metafemur with two rows of weak teeth on the ventral side, tarsomere 1 slightly longer than tarsomere 2.
Types. Holotype: Queensland: “ca. 18.10S 144.45E, Gulf Development, 40–49km E of Mount Surprise, Qld. 16 Feb 1995, J. Balderson & P.K. Christensen ” (ANIC). Paratypes (9): Queensland: “ 17.20S 144.57E, Emu Ck., 27km SW of Dimbulah, QLD, 25–26 Nov. 1981, J. Balderson ”(1, ANIC); “QLD, Mareeba Dist., Brumby Gully, on Eucalyptus, 4 Jan 81, S. Barker / SAMA Database No. 25-039335”(1, SAM); “ Australia: N. QLD, 7km NE of Tolga, 23 xii 1986, Storey & De Faveri, light trap ” (1, QM); “ Australia: N. QLD, 7km NE of Tolga, Nov 1988, Storey & De Faveri, light trap ” (1, QM); “ Australia: N. QLD, 7km NE of Tolga, 7–21 xi 1988, Storey & De Faveri, light trap ” (1, QM); “ Australia: N. QLD, 7km NE of Tolga, Dec 1988, Storey & De Faveri, light trap ” (1, QM); “ Cape Tribulation, N. QLD, 24–29 xii 1980, R.I. Storey, N. Gough, rainforest” (1, QM); “ Little Laura R., 15km NE of Laura, N. QLD, 1 i 1983, R. Storey ” (1, QM); “Emerald Ck., Mareeba, 19–20 Dec 1978, N.QLD, I.C. Cunningham, at light” (1, QM).
Distribution (Fig. 6B). Known only from northern Queensland.
Remarks. This species differs from the E. loxleyae (McKeown) by the elytral costae 1 and 2 separated, pronotum and median portion of elytra uniformly yellow (Fig. 5 D).