May, 1807.) 97 



ALEOCHARA (BARYOBMA) SUCCICOLA, Tiioms., A BRITISH INSECT. 

 BY Q. C. CHAMPION, F.Z.S. 



Under the name A. moesta, Grav., two species are confused in 

 British collections. One of them is common and widely distributed : 

 this is the A. succicola, Thorns., not hitherto recorded from Britain ; 

 the other, the true A. mcesta, Grav., appears to be very much rarei', 

 and of the thirty specimens repi'esenting A. moesta in my collection, 

 two only are referable to it (from the London district, and the Isle of 

 Sheppey respectively), all the others belonging to A. succicola. The 

 tv/o insects, which are placed in different subgenera of Baryodma by 

 Mulsant and Rey, may be distinguished by the following characters : — 



Maxillary palpi with the thii-d joint long, and gradually widening outwards 

 (subg. Polychara, Muls.and Rey) ; head and prothorax coarsely punctate ; 

 hind body very sparsely punctate moesta, Grav. 



Maxillary palpi with the third joint shorter and sub triangularly dilated (subg. 

 Homoeochara, Muls. and Rey) ; head and prothorax finely punctate ; hind 

 body still more sparsely punctate, appearing almost impunctate... 



succicola, Thorns. 



The difference in the form of the maxillary palpi was not noticed 

 by Thomson in his description of A. succicola (Skand. Col., ix, p. 216 

 [1867]). Ganglbauer (Die Kafer von Mitteleuropa, ii, p. 38, 41 

 [1895]), gives the synonymy of the two species as follows : — 

 moesta, Grav. succicola, Thorns. 



sparsa, Heer. sparsa, Fairm. and Laboulb. 



latipalpis, Muls. and Rey. 



But, according to Mulsant and Key (Aleochaires, p. 135), A. 

 succicola, Thorns. (1867) = A. sparsa, Heer (1838), and if that is 

 correct Heer's name will have to be used for the insect desci'ibed by 

 Thomson. A. cursitor and A. rufipes, Steph. (1832),* are more likely 

 to belong to this species than to A. moesta, under which name they 

 are placed by Ganglbauer. In any case it is quite obvious that the 

 common insect described by Thomson in 1867 must have been pre- 

 viously known, and the name succicola can only be provisionally used 

 for it. Dr. Sharp, at my request, has examined his British exponents 

 of A. onoesta, and he informs me that with one exception (a specimen 

 from Glasgow) the whole of them belong to A. succicola. This latter 

 is extremely variable in size and colour, specimens occurring with 

 reddish elytra or antennae (these forms sometimes doing duty for 

 A. hrunneipennis, &c., in collections) ; the dilated subtriangular third 



* The types of these species cannot now be identified with certainty in the Stephensian 

 collection : two specimens are placed under A. cursitor, one of which is A. nitida, and the other 

 A. succicola, and three under A. rufipes ; these latter being Micruglosaa nidicola ! 



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