101) ' FMay, 



CLAVIGER LONGICORNIS, Mull., A BEITISH INSECT. 



BY JAMES J. WALKER, M.A., R.N., F.L.S. 



It is with much pleasure that I am able to annoimce the addition 

 to our list of indio-enous Gohoptera of this highly interesting species, 

 which has been the object of assiduous search by those Entomologists 

 especially interested in our Myrniecophilovis beetles, ever since the late 

 Mr. E. W. Janson (Eut. Ann., 1857, p. 94) suggested the probability 

 of its occurrence in this country. 



On May 31st, 1906, I accompanied the Entomological section of 

 the Ashmolean Natural History Society on a field-meeting at Bletch- 

 ingdon Station, Oxon, some seven or eight miles north of Oxford, and 

 we spent the afternoon in rambling about and collecting in the old 

 quarries on both sides of the river Cherwell. Among the insects met 

 with were five examples of a Claviger, in nests of a small black ant, 

 which is noted in the Society's report for 1906 (p. 45) as Lasius niger, 

 L., but which I have every reason to believe was really Formica fusca, L. 

 These nests were all under fiat pieces of oolitic limestone of moderate 

 size, none of them exceeding, as far as my memory serves me, a foot 

 square and seven or eight pounds in weight. 



The subsequent history of these specimens is somewhat curious. 

 They were duly mounted and put away in a store-box " until wanted," 

 and I most imaccountably overlooked their obvious distinctions from 

 C. testaceus, PreyssL, which is widely, though sparingly, distributed in 

 the Oxford district. A few weeks ago, when I was " assembling" my 

 Pselaphid material for re-arrangement, these specimens came to light, 

 when I at once saw how different they were from oui* well-known form 

 of the genus ; and with the aid of Mr. CI. C. Champion and Mr. E. A. 

 Waterhouse at the Natural History Museum, had no difficulty in 

 identifying them as the long-sought C. loiigicornis, Miill. 



The original diagnosis of the species by P. W. J. Miiller (Germar, 

 Magazin der Entomologie, Band 3, p. 85, Tab. II, &. 16, 16a) (1818) 

 is as follows : — 



" Claviger longicornis mihi : cinnamomeus, antennis clavatis : 

 articulis intermediis elongatis, sub-cylindricis, abdomine ovato-subro- 

 tundo, basi brevissime bisulcato, segmentis dorsalibus obsoletis (Fig. 

 16) long. 1-1 J lin. In den Nestern der Formica fiava FL, um 

 Odenbach selten." 



Superficially G. longicornis differs from G. testacens in its decidedly 

 larger size and broader build, especially behind, and markedly in the 



