I916.J 223 



E. oblitus mihi (ante, p. 179). 



This was described from New Foi-est specimens ; it is also in 



Champion's collection from Woking-, 24.vi.1906 (I ^ and 4?). The 



lobes of the aedeagus are vei*y peculiar. Mulsant describes two small 



species, lyarens and crassiusmdum, but it is clear that ohlitus is not either 



of them. 



E. abietis Fabr. 



This name has been in the lists of British Coleoptera since the 



time of Stephens. I find nothing that can be it in our collections, and 



as it is attached to a tree (Abies) that is not a native of this country, 



we should at present eliminate the name. The specimen alluded to by 



Fodder (Col. Brit. Isls., IV, p. 193) as found by Turner at Alvie has 



no resemblance whatever to E. abietis. It is a female and may be an 



aberration of mollis. Two other specimens in the British Museum 



collection purporting to be abietis are badly mutilated females of mollis. 



The specimens of " abietis" in Stephens' collection were stated to be 



not that species by Waterhouse as long ago as 1858. Elven Stephens' 



description of " abietis " does not apply to the species, but apparently 



refers to tte female of E. inollis. 



Er7iobius nigrinus Sturm. 

 This is the most variable species of the genus in size and 

 colour, and e^en in punctuation. But on dissection of three males 

 that are very dissimilar in these respects, I find nothing in the struc- 

 ture of the aedeagus to support the supposition that they represent 

 more than one species. 



I give a list of the Eniobii known to me as British, viz. : — 

 E. miilsantianus Sharp. E. oblitus Sharp. 

 E. mdlis L. E. jjarvicollis Muls. 



E. reversus Sharp. E. nigrimis Sturm. 



I have been uuch interested in this genus because it is an ex- 

 cellent exemplification of the fact that the species cannot be finally 

 determined in the ibsence of a knowledge of the sexual characters. 

 The phenomena comected with the functioning of the sexual struc- 

 tures will be found also to present some peculiarities in the genus. 

 The spermatheca of the female is very remote from the vulva, and the 

 male has only a ver/ short sac, and there is very little penetration by 

 any part of the male structures. The aedeagus is very sti'ongly chiti- 

 nised. It is very asyumetrical, and consists of three lobes attached to 

 a bulb. The three l)bes have each its own peculiar form, which is 

 very highly differentiited, exhibiting twists, grooves, clefts and pro- 



