218 [October, 



excavated, a circumstance which gives rise to tlie appearance of an 

 angular projection a little beyond the middle. Dr. Fowler's account of 

 B. pvncticollis is based on the assumption that imncticollis, Auctt., has 

 really occurred in Britain ; an assumptioii which he is now inclined to 

 regard as without foundation. It may be noted in passing that 

 Reichenbach's figure 7 (Mon. Psel., t. I, 1816) which purports to 

 represent davicornis, Panz , and is quoted under that name by Aube 

 (Psel. Mon., p. 40, 1833), but not, so far as I can see, by siibsequeut 

 writers, is a very fair representation of the male of B. imndicoUis, Denny. 



Ganglbauer (Kafer von Mitteleuropa, II, p. 815) speaks of dimor- 

 phism in the males of several species, one form having the legs like the 

 female, and the other having the femora strongly incrassate. B. jmndi- 

 collis is our only species in which this state of things may be expected 

 to occur. I have not so far seen any example in which simple femora 

 were correlated with the exact form of the last joint of the palpi proper 

 to the male ; and, on the whole, I consider that it will be well not to 

 assvime the existence of dimorphism in the male of this species until 

 the presence of a membrum virile in specimens having simple femora 

 has been demonstrated. 



B. BURRELLii, Denny. 



In this species and the next the anteunal characters proper to the 

 male are in some cases ill-developed or wanting ; I have taken at 

 different times, on the same gi'ound with typical males, a series of four 

 examples in which the second joint of the antenna; exhibits a complete 

 gradation from a crescent in which the distal end is a little smaller 

 than the proximal, to a state in wdiich the only modification consists of 

 a slight production of the inner basal angle. It has been customary to 

 regard as males only those specimens which have the second joint of 

 the antennae evidently modified ; but I am of opinion that all the speci- 

 mens which have the last joint of the palpi very tumid, subtriangular, 

 not longer than wide, with a large rounded prominence at the middle 

 of the inner edge, are of that sex, because I have extracted from such 

 a specimen taken at Alvanley by Mr. Dutton in which the second joint 

 of the antennae is not modified at all, an organ which, from previous 

 experience and the excellent figures given by Messrs. Sharp and Muir 

 (Trans. Ent. Soc. Loud., 1912, t. LXXVII, figs. 230, 230a), I have no 

 hesitation in regarding as an aedeagus. The insect which, from experi- 

 ence in the field, I take to be the female of B. burrellii has the last joint 

 of the palpi similar in shape to that of B. bulbifer, from which, as well 

 as B. didinduti, it is easily distinguished by the strongly transverse joints 

 3-8 of the antennae. 



