66 LMarch, 



MALACRIUS SPINOSUS, Er., AN ADDITION TO THE BRITISH LIST. 

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



The recent discovery of Malachius barnevillei, Puton, in Britain 

 has induced me to re-examine all the MalacMi in my collection, and I 

 find that amongst my M. viridis there are three specimens of yet 

 another addition to the British list, viz., M. spinosus, Er. These 

 examples (I ^ and 2 ?) were captured by myself at Sheerness on 

 June 6th, 1869, in company with many M. viridis. The two species 

 are readily separated by the form of the apex of the elytra of the 

 male, M. spinosus, in fact, being nearly related to M. marginellus, and 

 belonging to Mulsant's subgenus Glanoptilus. The structure of the 

 antennae and elytral appendages, in both male and female, of all these 

 forms is well shown in Mulsant's " Vesiculiferes," Plates 1-3. M. 

 spinosus is a common insect in Southern France, Germany, &c., and 

 is found in marshy places. 



The Sheerness specimens want the dark elytral setse, which are 

 sometimes wanting, according to Mulsant. 



They may be briefly described as follows : — 



Elongate, rather narrow, dull, brassy-green, the front of the head flavous, the 

 apex of the elytra rufous or flavous ; clothed with a fine cinereous pubescence, the 

 elytra without setse. Antennae very similarly formed in the two sexes, a little 

 longer in the <J than in the ? , the basal joint not dilated. Elytra at the base not 

 wider than the prothorax, subparallel in the (J , widened towards the apex in the ? ; 

 the apex in the S rufous, very deeply, transversely excavate, the upper and lower 

 lobes horizontal, about equal in length, the upper lobe with a large, tooth-like, 

 emarginate prominence on the inner (sutural) edge beneath, above vphich is a 

 setiform appendage ; the apex in the $ broadly fulvous, shining, transversely 

 depressed. 



Horsell : February 9th, 1905. 



Some Notes on the British form of Hydroporus hilineatus , Sturm. — Dr. Sharp 

 has kindly given me an opportunity of comparing my British examples of H. hili- 

 neatus, Sturm, with typical specimens taken in the Hautes Pyrenees. At first 

 sight the differences are startling, the typical form has a broad yellow margin 

 running all round the thorax and elytra and a broad bright yellow band on the 

 disc of each elytron about midway between the suture and the margin, starting close 

 to the base and running three quarters of tlie length where it ends abruptly. In the 

 British insects, on the other hand, the yellow margin is much less bright in colora- 

 tion and altogether fainter, especially round the elytra, and the bands are less dis- 

 tinct and in some cases almost wanting, besides which they do not start from so 

 near the base of the elytra and they do not end so abruptly. 



There is a variety of H. bHineatus described by Schilsky (in Deutsche Ent. 

 Zeitschr., 1892, p. 193), named by him hopffgarteni to which I have been referred 



