48 Mr. G. R. Waterliouse : Contributions to the Eiitomoloyy 



Nyct. Bremii. 

 Nyct, ater, nitida ; elytris profunde striatis interstitiis convexis, striis 

 rugosis et obliquis. 



I regret my notes on this species are imperfect ; they however 

 state that it greatly resembles the Nyct. Westwoodii, but may be 

 distinguished by the strise or grooves, with their convex inter- 

 spaces^ which are next the suture, being oblique and not longi- 

 tudinal as in that species ; the grooves are moreover less strongly 

 marked, less regular, more numerous and rugose. 



Nyctelia macrocosta, Guer., ^ Mag. de Zool.^ 



This I strongly suspect will prove to be a local variety of my Epi- 

 pedonota rugosa. Of Ep. rugosa Mr. Bridges sent very many spe- 

 cimens to England, all of which were perfectly black throughout ; 

 I was not prepared therefore to suppose they could be specifically 

 identical with Guerin^s N. macrocosta, an insect of which I had 

 seen a description only, and which differs in having the legs and 

 antennse bright red, and the margins of the thorax, the lateral 

 keel of the elytra, and the large costa on each elytron also red, 

 but inclining to pitchy. The costse are more strongly marked in 

 the Marquis de Breme's specimens (which are all that I have 

 seen) than in my Ep. rugosa. 



As regards these differences, I may observe, that in the Marquis 

 de Breme^s collection, all the specimens of Guerin^s Nyct. multi- 

 costa (genus Callyntra, Solier), have the legs and lateral keel of 

 the elytra pitchy red, excepting one, and in this the keel is almost 

 uniform in colour with the body ; in four specimens of this spe- 

 cies in my own collection the lateral keel is black, and one of 

 them has the legs black, or very nearly so. Both of Epipedonota 

 ehenina and Nyctelia Icevis I possess black and red-legged speci- 

 mens ; similar varieties occur in the Nyctelia nodosa. In some 

 cases the different varieties appear to be confined to particular 

 districts *. 



In works on entomology the ^habitats' of the species are often 



* I recollect in conversation with the late most aniiable, and I am sure 

 much-lamented Dr. Natterer (who resided in the Brazils very many years, 

 during which time he amassed an enormous collection of natural-history 

 subjects), he expressed a strong opinion that several of the so-called species 

 of South American monkeys were not specifically distinct, but that they con- 

 stituted different races of the same species, confined to particular districts, 

 animals which differed in colour only. He alluded especially to the genus 

 Mycetes, the species of which have so much puzzled mamraalogists, and ob- 

 served, that sometimes on different sides of the same river, animals of what 

 he considered the same species difiTered in colour very materially. Dr. Nat- 

 terer was one of the most careful observers I ever met with ; and that he pub- 

 lished so little of the mass of information he possessed relating to natural 

 history, I perceived upon intimate acquaintance arose from orer-caution, — 

 from too great a fear of committing an error. 



