1917- DoxiSTHORPE — Elutcr praciistus F., an Irish Beetle. 99 



ELATER PRAEUSTUS R, AN IRISH BEETLE. 



BY HORACE ST. J. K. DONISTHORPE, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



4 i 



In June, 1902, my friend Mr. F. Bouskell and I captured 

 specimens of a red Elater which were found on a road 

 at Glencar, Co. Kerry. These were said to be E. pomonae 

 Steph., and were recorded as such {Ent. Rec. xiv., 240, 

 1902 ; Irish Nat. xii., 60, 1903) although neither 

 Bouskell nor I have ever felt satisfied that they were that 

 species. Placed among a series of E. pomonae they catch 

 the eye at once as evidently being out of place. 



Recently Mr. Pool, who is working at a paper on the 

 British red Elaters, asked me to examine my specimens, 

 This caused me to make a careful study of the Irish insect, 

 and I became convinced it was something new. When I 

 met Pool at the British Museum he was able at once to 

 pick out this beetle, and he tells me he has now ex- 

 amined large numbers of British specimens, and has not 

 seen another like it. . 



In examining the species in the general collection I 

 found mixed in the series of E. praeustus specimens very 

 like the Irish species (the only ones in the whole collection 

 near to it), one from Montpellier being almost identical. 

 Either E. praeustus is a very variable insect, or there are 

 two species mixed up in the large series at the Museum, 

 one being undescribed. 



Typical E. praeustus are larger, duller, and more closely 

 and strongly punctured, they have a broad black tip to 

 the elytra, and such specimens do not appear to have 

 golden pubescence beneath. It is very widely distributed, 

 having been found in North and South Russia, Sweden, 

 France, Spain, etc., etc. ; it may be best therefore to 

 record the Irish beetle as E. praeustus F., new to the 

 British list, rather than to make a new species. 



I have drawn up the following description of the Kerry 

 insects : — 



