Cneorhinus and Strophosomus. 307 



tion, is certainly a very small immature variety of his ohesus with 

 the elytra clouded with fuscous spots^ and the body and legs pale 

 rufous ; Cure, nigricans of Kirby^s manuscript and collection is 

 decidedly a dark variety of Cure, tessellatus of Marsh. ; Stroph, 

 rufipes, asperifoliamm, eognatus and nebulosus of Steph. ' Illus- 

 trations ' are all varieties of this protean insect. I sent fifteen 

 specimens including varieties to Schonherr, who referred them to 

 Cure, ohesus, Marsh., Coryli, Payk., Gyll. and Schonh. It is so 

 extremely variable in size (length I^ — 2^ lines) and in the colour 

 of the scales, that scarcely two individuals out of many hundreds 

 can be found exactly alike. I have found it very abundantly on 

 its first appearance in the middle of May, and again about the 

 beginning of September, from which it seems to be double- 

 brooded ; and specimens frequently occur at those periods with 

 the body and legs rufous, densely clothed with bright scales of 

 various shades of coppery-red and golden-yellow or fuscous, or 

 with cinereous and silvery- white or fuscous, rarely with shining 

 brassy-green and coppery-red scales, beautifully and irregularly 

 variegated or nebulose, or with pale spots on the punctures of 

 the elytra ; older specimens found in July and August have the 

 body black, the legs dusky ferruginous or the femora and tibise 

 piceous, and with the scales of an uniform dull gray or brown 

 and much obscured by earthy matter ; the general form of the 

 elytra is nearly oval, but it has a tendency, particularly in large 

 specimens, to become broader in proportion to the length and 

 more convex ; but these varieties in a long series are closely linked 

 together by a regular gradation from one form to another, and 

 by the general character of the sculpture, so that no separation 

 can be made. 



I have found this insect very plentifully on low underwood and 

 amongst thick herbage in Bishop's Wood, near Hampstead, and 

 in Birch Wood, likewise in Yorkshire. 



3. Strophosomus fulvicornis (Curt, in litt.), Walt. 



Black or piceous, sparingly or rather densely clothed with ci- 

 nereous and fuscous scales. Head very short, transverse, longi- 

 tudinally rugulose, with a deep lineolet in the centre ; eyes ex- 

 tremely prominent ; rostrum short, broadest at the base, distinctly 

 longer and a little narrower than the head, triangularly emargi- 

 nated at the apex above, transversely strigated and deeply foveo- 

 lated at the base, with a very broad and rather deep longitudinal 

 furrow, which is carinulated in the middle. Antennse as long as 

 the head and thorax, fulvous and finely pubescent. Thorax short, 

 subquadrate, the base and apex truncate, nearly of equal breadth, 

 moderately rounded at the sides, convex above, rather coarsely 



