30 



The Irish Natuyalist. February, 



NOTES ON NEW IRISH BEETLES. 



BY J. N. HALBERT, M.R.I. A. 



During a collecting trip to the Tough Neagh district, 

 organised by the Royal Irish Academy Fauna and Flora 

 Committee, in the summer of 1902, I found a few specimens of 

 a small black-banded Cryptophagus, which was evidently 

 different from an}^ of the species of this genus known to 

 occur in Ireland. These specimens remained unidentified 

 until quite recently, when I found time to compare them with 

 types and descriptions of the European species. It was then 

 apparent that the insect is to be referred to Cryptophagus 

 bifuaculahis, Panz., a species which is unrecorded from the 

 Britannic area. It will be remembered that there are already 

 three beetles recorded from the Tough Neagh district which 

 are quite unknown elsewhere in the British Isles, these are the 

 ground-beetles Dyschirius obscurus and Betnbidhmi argeiiteGliw}^ 

 and the rove-beetle Stenus palposus. The addition, therefore, 

 of a fourth species would seem to indicate that the entomo- 

 logical treasures of this most interesting district are not yet 

 exhausted. 



Cryptophagus bimaculatus, Panz. 



Cryptophagus bimaadatiis is a small species, the largest of 

 the Tough Neagh specimens measuring about 2 mm. in length. 

 The general colour of mature specimens is reddish brown, 

 rather shining, with an ill-defined black band across the wing- 

 cases ; in most specimens this band is interrupted towards the 

 suture, causing the spotted appearance which has evidently 

 suggested the name of the insect. Viewed under a high 

 magnification the fore-body is seen to be deeply and closely 

 punctured. The thorax is about double as broad as long, 

 strongly and regularly serrated along the .side margin.s, where 

 there is no trace of the conspicuously larger tooth, situated 

 near the middle, which is such a constant character in this 

 genus. Indeed the absence of a larger projecting tooth, com- 

 bined with the banding of the elytra, are sufficient to distinguish 

 C. bhnaculatiis from all of the known British species of 

 Cryptophagus. 



My .specimens were captured by sweeping amongst large 

 beds of rushes on the shore of Tough Neagh bordering the 



