Phyllobius, Polydrosus and Metallites. 19 



7. Polydrosus Chrysomela, Oliv., Schonh. Supp. vi. p. 447, Germ. 



— sericeus, Steph., Curt., non Schaller. 



— pulchellus, Steph. Manual, p. 249. 



In my long series of varieties of this insect I have recent spe- 

 cimens clothed with shining green scales, some golden-yellow or 

 coppery-red, and others of a silvery-gray ; older specimens are 

 found with the scales more or less abraded, and the colour of the 

 legs obscure testaceous, and sometimes the femora are piceous : 

 the form of the elytra varies very remarkably ; some are consi- 

 derably narrowed, and the sides nearly straight, whilst others are 

 much broader, having the sides regularly dilated and rounded 

 from the shoulders to the apices, and very convex above ; the 

 second and sixth interstices from the suture on each elytron are 

 more or less distinctly lineated, in consequence of being more 

 densely clothed with paler scales than the others. 



Specimens which I sent to Germar were referred to " P. 

 Chrysomelaj Oliv., Schonh." P. sericeus of Stephens and Curtis 

 (according to the insects in their cabinets) is beyond all doubt 

 identical with this species, and it is my opinion that P. pulchellus 

 of Stephens (represented in his cabinet by one insect) is but a 

 narrow variety with " golden griseous scales.'^ 



Apparently a littoral or submaritime insect : I have taken it on 

 grassy banks, just above high-water mark, on the shores of the 

 Thames below Gravesend, and at Burnham, on the coast of the 

 Bristol Channel, the beginning of June. 



8. P. confiuens (Kirb. MSS.), Steph. Illust. (1831). 



— amaurus, Steph. 



— Chrysomela, Schonh. ii. (1834), Steph. Manual (1'839). 



— perplexus (Dej. Cat.), Schonh. Supp. vi. (1840). 



Mr. Stephens appears to be the first author who described this 

 insect, since which he refers it in his ' Manual of British Coleo- 

 ptera' to Chrysomela of Olivier after Schonherr; subsequently 

 Schonherr, in his Supplement, changed the n2.m.Qiov perplexus oi 

 Dejean Catal., and upon the authority of Schuppel, applies Chry- 

 somela to the preceding species. 



I possess two foreign insects from Chevrolat, with the name 

 perplexus of Dejean, which are identical with the confiuens of 

 Kirby. 



I have taken this insect rather plentifully near Lyndhurst, 

 Hants, and also on the south side of Windmill Hill near Graves- 

 end, and in other places, always on the furze ( Ulex europaus), in 

 July : on broom at Plumstead, Charlton and Weybridge from 

 June to September, Mr. S. Stevens. 



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