1897-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 35 



ground during immaturity, and when discovered will probably 

 prove to be eyeless. 



The above narrative is gtven with the view that collectors may 

 look for this beetle more understandingly. It may be wide spread 

 and not so rare as it seems at present. The likelihood, from its 

 pale color and extreme activity, of being mistaken for a colony 

 of young roaches should be borne in mind. 



Anthicus formicarius Goeze, formicoides Geoff., basilaris Say, 

 quisquilius Thorns., Hemantus enodis, scenicus, f rixator Casey. 

 It seems that Captain Casey, in his monograph of the Anthicini 

 (Ann. N. Y. Acad. Nat. Sci., Sept. 1895), not having seen 

 European examples of either floralis or the present species, 

 doubted the identity of the former and ignored all reference to 

 the latter, which course furnished material for, to him, two, per- 

 haps three new species. 



Like as myself, in the first edition of the Coleoptera, common 

 to America and Europe, he committed the error of uniting basil- 

 laris \v\\\\Jioralis, but seems to have disregarded, or not to have 

 noticed the correction made by Mr. A. Fauvel ("Revue d'Ento- 

 mol " viii, 155), and embodied in my second edition (1. c. ). 



This of course left formicarius Geoze, basilaris Say, unde- 

 scribed. Like many other widely distributed species this, besides 

 the inevitable individual differences, is subject to some slight geo- 

 graphical variation ; the form from Southern California is a little 

 paler and has slightly finer general punctuation than examples 

 from Canada. Examples from Europe seem to be absolutely iden- 

 tical with the California form, which is Captain Casey's Hem at us 

 enodis&s, determined by description: this does not differ in any es- 

 sential structure from the Atlantic coast form, which is undoubt- 

 edly H. scenicus Casey; // rixator Casey from the New Mexican 

 region differs so little by description as to be doubtfully distinct, 

 though a want of specimens prevents absolute positiveness. 

 I find, from the examination of numerous European and Ameri- 

 can forms, that the characters chiefly designated by Mr. Casey 

 to separate his species are individually intercurrent, ine<>n>tant. 

 and cannot safely be used for that purpose, a condition that could 

 scarcely have been overlooked with more plentiful material. For 

 some antecedent remarks on this species see ENT. NEWS, vii, 70. 



American habitat, so far as personally known, Southern Cali- 

 fornia, Florida, Massachusetts, Canada (Ontario). 



I cannot follow Captain Casey in splitting .-Inlhicus into ten 

 genera with meaningless barbaric names ; these so-called LU mm 

 are simply groups convenient for the purpose of analysis and 

 nearly all previously recognized by various authors. In a cata- 

 logue these groups may properly be noted by xxx, or as in 

 European, designated by numerals. 



