1 ^ [January, 



The three sj)eoies of Tomicus mentioned, above have been again 

 separated from that genus by M. Bedel, and placed in a new genus, 

 Pifyofjenes, distinguished from Tomicus by the absence of a prosternal 

 process. Pifi/or/pnes chnJcogr(tphus, Linn., and hidentatus, Herbst, are 

 well known species ; P. quadridens, Hart., is less known, and its place 

 is sometimes supplied by examples of P. hidentatus. It is a distinctly 

 smaller insect, the punctuation of the thorax is finer and more scat- 

 tered. The male has four distinct teeth at the apex of the elytra, two 

 at the summit of the apical declivity, which are large and hooked, and 

 two rather more than half-way down it, but not as far down as the 

 apex, the border between these two teeth is not crenulate, and is quite 

 devoid of setigerous tubercles, which are always present in P. hiden- 

 tatus. The female has four small tubercles in the situation of the 

 male teeth. 



48, Winipole Street, W. : 



November, IS'JO. 



ON THE OVIPOSITIOX of MET(ECUS {RHIPIPHORUS) PARADOXUS. 

 BY T. ALGEENON CHAPMAN, M.D. 



It is now some twenty 3'ears since I made a slight addition to our 

 knowledge of the life-history of this interesting species. I was then 

 obliged to leave undetermined the whole question of the oviposition, 

 of the hatching of the young larva, and its means of reaching the 

 wasps' nest. In this long interval I have, as opportunity occurred, 

 made various efforts to clear up some of these points ; but it was not 

 till this year that I made any further advance : so far as I have heard 

 no one else has done anything in the matter. As my observations 

 this year only throw a partial light on the still obscure questions, I 

 had some idea of waiting till they were more complete before saying 

 anything about them ; but I reflected that possibly another twenty 

 years might elapse before making another step, and the appearance of 

 the part of Mr. Fowler's Coleoptera dealing with the species making 

 it seasonable, I submit this note. 



Failures are often as instructive as successes, and have, in this 

 case, led up to the trifling success I have at length reached, so that I 

 am sorry to have kept no record of what I did in the matter at various 

 times in recent years. I did, however, obtain examples of the beetle 

 in greater or less numbers, and treated them in various ways, placing 

 with them earth, sand, various plants, flowers, &c., but always with 

 the result lh;it in a few weeks at furthest thev died, without either 



