THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 237 



NOTES ON COLEOPTERA— NO. 6 



BY JOHN HAMILTON, M. D., ALLEGHENY, PA. 



Corymbites iiigricornis Panz. (metallicus Payk. nitidulus Lee.) 

 This species is wjdely distributed in North America, from Hudson Bay 

 to Massachusetts, and westwardly to the Rocky Mountains, through which 

 it extends to New Mexico. It also inhabits Siberia, Central and Northern 

 Europe. The typical form (European) is described as metallic black, with 

 the two basal joints of the antennae and the feet rufous. The American 

 forms found in Northern Michigan and at Sudbury, Ontario, agree with 

 this description, except that I have seen no example with more than the 

 first basal joint of the antennas rufous. Moreover, specimens occur with 

 the hind angles of the thorax rufescent, and the feet varied in different 

 ways from rufous to entirely brown. From the more southern parts of 

 Canada and from Massachusetts comes a form with a narrow margin and 

 the hind angles of the thorax, its inflexed sides, the prosternal lobe, the 

 epipleura of the elytra, sides of the abdomen and narrow posterior mar- 

 gin of the ventral segments rufous ; the feet varying in colour, as in the 

 typical forms. 



Except in colour there appears to be no other separative, but this is 

 so striking that it is not obvious, without some study, that the forms are 

 all one thing. No such variation seems to have been recorded among the 

 European forms. 



Petalium bistriatum Say. — This is a very small thing, from .04 to .08 

 inch in length, black, with rufous feet and antennae, and is frequently 

 beaten from bushes by the collector. There is a form raised abundantly 

 from dead hickory of two years, that is entirely castaneous, with the other 

 characters noways different, except that the dorsal strige of the elytra are 

 fairly well marked, the intervals with rows of fine soft hair, and the 8th 

 joint of the antennae, though still short, can be seen in life with a lens ; 

 whether this is sufficient difference to be the basis of another species is 

 left to the future monographer. The genus is readily known from all 

 others in this difficult family by the large metasternum projecting forward 

 separating widely the middle coxae, and by the second ventral segment of 

 the abdomen being as wide as the remaining three conjointly. The in- 

 sects of this family have a very provoking habit of tucking away the an- 

 tenna and folding the legs so as to elude observation without a trouble- 



