80 [April, 



form given to tiic by Ur. Chaster in 1902, but later I took the other 

 form in South Devon, and on examining them saw at once that Mr. 

 Britten was right iu supposing that they were distinct species. 



There can be no doubt that the southern one is the true H. 

 nigrita, Germ. With regard to the other I have been at some pains 

 in trying to find out to which of the European species it might belong, 

 Herr Ganglbauer among others being unable to identify it for me, 

 and I have come to the conclusion it has not yet been described. I 

 have much pleasure in naming it after Mr. Britten, to whom the whole 

 of the credit of its discovery is due, although he was not the first to 

 capture it. 



The following is a description of the species : — 

 Rather elongate, pitchy or reddish-brown, with head pitchy-black ; head 

 shining, somewhat diffusely and strongly punctured ; antennse reddish-testaceous, 

 club darker ; maxillary palpi reddish-testaceous, tip of the last joint black, differing in 

 the sexes: in the (J the first and second joints are swollen at the apex, the tiiird arcuate, 

 gradually broader for three-quarters of its length and then abruptly cone-shaped 

 to the tip, having a small smooth tubercle on the inner or convex side at tiie junction 

 of these two parts; in the $ all the joints are simple, the last rather short, narrow, 

 and broadest in the middle ; thorax transverse, somewhat obsoletely impressed at 

 sides and base, disc shining and diffusely punctured, punctuation thick near the 

 margins ; sides of thorax dilated in middle in a rounded obtuse angle, contracted 

 in a straight line to base, post angles distinct, but obtuse, opposite 8th or yth row 

 of punctures on elytra ; elytra sub-parallel, not dilated behind, broadest about 

 middle, with nine or ten rows of closely set square punctures between the suture 

 and humeral angle, sutural angles separately rounded ; legs reddish-testaceous. 



Long., lj-2 mm. 



* H. hritteni is most closely allied to H. riparia, Kug., but differs 

 from it in being smaller and not quite so parallel-sided, in the shape 

 of the thorax, and in the structure of the maxillary palpi of the ^. 

 In H. riparia the thorax is more strongly and evenly punctured 

 throughout, the sides are more distinctly angled in the middle and 

 more strongly contracted behind, being slightly sinuate just before the 

 hind angles, which are very sharp and exactly right angles, and are 

 opposite the 7th row of punctures on the elytra. The first two joints 

 of the maxillary palpi in the (J R. riparia are simple, the last joint is 

 not curved, but is gradually dilated for just over half its length and 

 from thence gradually narrowed to the apex ; in the ? the last joint 

 is proportionally longer than in H. hritteni, and is broadest nearer 

 the apex than the base. 



From a. nigrita, which it resembles in size, H. hritteni may be 

 distinguished by its distinctly more parallel form, lighter colour, less 

 strongly and more diffusely punctured thorax, which is much less 



