EETROSPECT OF A COLEOPTERIST FOR 1909. 5 



and that the At/ums nitfer, L., of our collections, was really A. kiitKs, 

 Hbst. ; in the same article he gave some further characters for separat- 

 ing Trachifphloeun aristatm, Gyll., and T. stjnaiiinlatns, 01., and also 

 (H/iiiis melanocephalus, Grav., and (>. vn/niiecophilus, Kies ; he also 

 again expressed the opinion that the insects we call Melanotits castanipes, 

 Payk., are only large specimens of M. niripes, Herbst. I must again 

 express my disagreement with this view. In an interesting note 

 entitled" On the Mlanis micros of British Catalogues" {lor. cit., p. 99), 

 Mr. E. A. Butler adduced evidence to show that this species does occur 

 in Great Britain, having been taken at Caterham, Mickleham, Box 

 Hill, etc. ; he thought it was possible we had another species (un- 

 described) coming very near to J/, fiiicroti, but distinct from it. Mr. J. 

 Edwards discussed in an article entitled " On the British species of 

 Chalroiihs, Foudras" {loc. eit., p. 127), the synonymy of the five 

 British species, and certainly, if we are to follow continental usage, 

 we must change at least three of the names : chloris, Foudras, becomes 

 pltitiis, Latr. ; K)iiayc((i(liii(i, Foudr., becomes fulvicoiiUK, Fab. ; and 

 lu'Lviiu's, Brit. Cat., becomes anrea, Geoff. Mr. Edwards gave a new 

 table for separating the species (I personally have never found any 

 difficulty in doing this with the aid of the table given by Canon 

 Fowler), and mentioned most of the colour aberrations of the various 

 species. Dr. -Toy, in a paper "Notes on the male genitalia of Aytisn- 

 t(>iiia amjlica, Rye, and (r)iatJionci(s nidicola, Joy " {loc. cit., p. 219), 

 showed that Avith the aid of these characters he was able to separate 

 definitely A. ant/iica from A. ciyoiaviomra, Pz. (in this he differs from 

 Dr. Fleischer, who professes his inability to see any ditierence in these 

 organs in the two forms), and (t. nidicola, Joy, from (i. rotundatiis, Kug.; 

 in the latter ease an illustration was given to show how very different 

 in shape this organ is in the two forms. Mr. H. Britten had a useful 

 note on the distinctive characters of Clanibus minutiis, Sturm., and C. 

 jinHctidion, Beck. {lor. cit., p. 250); it will be remembered that Mr. 

 Donisthorpe remstated this latter species in our list last year. 



There was only one article dealing directly with mimicry, that by Dr. 

 Chapman on "Mimicry of Phi/todcrta varictbilifi, Oliv., and L'occinella 

 >icpt em punctata,'" L. {loc. cit., p. 18G), in which he gave an account of his 

 observations at Amelie-les-Bains, with some remarks on Mr. Bateson's 

 previous account of the species /'. rariahilis {Proc. Zool. Soc Lond., 

 1895, pp. 850-860). 



Of notes dealing with the distribution of our fauna throughout the 

 country, there were several to which attention may be drawn. Dr. 

 Joy in " A further note on the Coleoptera of the Scilly fsles " {loc. cit., 

 p. 54) brought up the total recorded to date to 331 ; in this note he 

 stated that he was now convinced that Snniiis li/onexsius, Joy, was a 

 distinct species ; I see no reason to modify the opinion I expressed on 

 this point in my "Retrospect for 1908 " (/•,'»^ llcnnd, xxi., p. 27). Mr. 

 de la Garde gave a valuable list of coleoptera found at Braunton and 

 other places in Devon {Ivnt. Mo. Maii., p.86j ; and Mr. Tomlin published 

 lists of captures in the county of Hereford {loc. cit., pp. 6G and 252). 



Attention must be drawn to a paper {loc. cit., p. 19(3) by Messrs. 

 Champion and Lloyd on some interesting British insects, which was 

 accompanied by a beautiful and accurately coloured plate, illustrating 

 seven of the most interesting additions made to our list during recent 

 years. This plate should stimulate collectors to endeavour to add new 



