402 Mr. A. Murray^s Monograph of the genus Catops. 



which is obUquely truncate. Legs brown ; thighs often blackish. 

 Size very variable. 



Distinguished at first sight from all the allied species, except 

 varicornis and validus, by its truncate elytra. From C. varicornis 

 it is distinguished by the apex of the antennse not being light- 

 coloured, and from C validus by its smaller size and by the dif- 

 ferent proportions of the joints of the antennse. 



Common in Britain, and generally distributed all over Europe. 



54. C varicornisj Rosenhauer. 



Catops varicornis, Rosenh. Beitr. zur Ins. Fn. Eur. i. 23; Kraatz, Stett. Ent. 

 Zeit. xiii. 442. 33. 



Oblongo-ovatus, niger, fusco-sericeus ; antennis brevioribus, basi 

 apiceque ferrugineis ; thorace elytrisque transyersim strigosis, 

 his apice truncatis. 



Long, li lin. 



Closely allied to C. sericeuSy and principally distinguished by 

 the form and colour of the antennse, which are shorter and 

 ferruginous both at the base and the apex, and the beetle is usually 

 somewhat darker. The head is broad, finely punctate, shining 

 black with a grey pubescence ; the mouth ferruginous-red. The 

 antennse scarcely reach beyond the half of the thorax, and are 

 thickened on the outer side so as to be distinctly club-shaped. 

 The individual joints are as in the C. sericeus, but form a rounder 

 oblong and thicker club. The first five joints are ferruginous- 

 red, those following brownish ; the eighth shorter but not more 

 slender than the remainder ; the last transverse, short, and very 

 obtuse, much shorter than in the C sericeus, and reddish-yellow. 

 The thorax is large, black, shining, clothed with a silky pubes- 

 cence, almost square, a little broader than long, of the breadth 

 of the elytra, somewhat narrowed in front, gently rounded on 

 the sides ; the posterior angles pointed, projecting slightly back- 

 wards, the posterior margin rounded. The scutellum is large, 

 triangular, transversely strigose. The elytra are dark brown, 

 finely transversely strigose, a little arched, somewhat rounded on 

 the sides, moderately narrowed towards the extremity, not so 

 strongly truncate at the apex as in C sericeus, and more rounded, 

 with a fine brownish pubescence. The under side is black ; the 

 legs are brown, the tarsi paler. 



The pale terminal joint of the antennse, combined with the 

 general appearance of C. sericeus, at once indicates this species. 

 It is also a deeper insect than sericeus, and the sides more nearly 

 approach the perpendicular. 



Described by Rosenhauer from three specimens found at 



