1907.] 223 



niALACRUS HYBRID US, Flacit, AN ADDITION TO THE LIST OF 



BRITISH COLEOPTERA, WITH A REVI'^ION 



OF THE BRITISH SPECIES OF PUALACRUS, Patkull. 



TBT E. A. NEWBERT. 



The genus Phnlocrus has received very little attention in this 

 country for many years. In 1888 Dr. Karl Flach published a revision 

 of the PhalacridcB (Best. Tab., Heft, xvii, Briinn), but it does not 

 appear that Canon Fowler had seen this work, since in his " British 

 Coieoptera" (Vol. iii, p. 148), published a year after, he uses the 

 characters given in (^ox's " Handbook " of 1874 almost without 

 alteration. In 1892 M. Guillebeau essayed a revision of the group. 

 While giving great credit to Dr. Flach for the excellent characters 

 for classification which he had brought forward, he ignores the most 

 valuable of them all — i.e., the " alutation " of the upper surface — for 

 no better reason than that it requires the use of a compound micro- 

 scope, an indispensable aid, which, in his desire to popularize the 

 subject, he mistakenly rejects. He relies chiefly on the form and 

 convexity of the body, the depth of the dorsal stria?, and some other 

 less important characters, with the result that, although he has done 

 a certain amount of good work, he has greatly multiplied species — 

 80 called — many of which have been very properly reduced to 

 varieties or synonyms in the last (1906) European Catalogue. 



The principal characters which Dr. Flach uses for classification 

 are the presence or absence of the basal border of the thorax, the 

 alutation of the upper surface and the shape of the body. The size 

 of several of the species is very variable, so much so as to suggest 

 a possible subsequent subdivision into more species, if good and 

 constant characters can be found. At present I have only been able 

 to find good characters for five British species, and have been com- 

 pelled to reject P. Immherti, Rye, and P. hrisouti, Rye, for the want 

 of these characters in the original descriptions. I have not, however, 

 seen Rye's types, but the fact that these two so called species are 

 recorded from Britain only, goes far to confirm my doubts as to their 

 specific or even varietal value. 



Before examining the specimens with a one inch objective, they 

 should be cleaned with chloroform, which will be found much better 

 for this purpose than benzine. 



The following table will serve to separate the British species : — 

 A. — Thorax bordered in front of scutellum. 

 I. — Elytra alutaceous throughout. 



