1905.] gy 



Triplax are separated off into the sub<,'enus FlaticJina, Th. Of those 

 which are now known to occur in Great Britain only hicolor belongs 

 to Platichna ; the other three — russica, L., eenea, Schall., and lacord- 

 airei, Crotch — belong to Triplnx sensu stricto. The characters given 

 by Gauglbauer for these divisions are as follows : — 



Triplax : — Base of thorax stroTigly bordered, or furnished with a strongly 

 marked transverse furrow in front of the scutellum ; in shape more or less parallel- 

 sided, elongate-ovate. 



Platichna : — Base of thorax throughout very finely bordered, and never pro- 

 vided with a transverse furrow ; shape, more or less ovate. 



I am indebted to Prof. Beare for the following rough translation 

 of Ganglbauer's description of hicolor : — 



" Triplax bicolor, Gyll. — Usually about the same size as russica,* but dis- 

 tinguished from that species by its more ovate form, by the yellowish-red colour of 

 the base of the antennae, and of the scutellum, and by the fact that the whole of 

 the under-side of the body is reddish in colour It may also be readily separated 

 from russica by the generic characters already given." 



General description .-—Oblong, moderately ovate, yellowish-red, elytra shining 

 black ; antennae black or brown, with the first two joints, and occasionally the 

 third, rusty-red in colour. The head is large, with the clypeus thickly punctured. 

 The third joint of the antennae is about half as long again as the second and fourth, 

 the fourth and fifth joints are elongate, the sixth is about as long as broad, and the 

 seventh is slightly, and the eighth distinctly, transverse. Tlie thorax is somewhat 

 strongly contracted in front, and at the base is about twice as broad as long ; the 

 sides are finely, and the base very finely, bordered. The elytra are oblong, slightly 

 widened in the basal third j moderately coarsely punctate-striate, with the inter- 

 stices somewhat strongly punctured. Length, 45 to 5'0 mm. 



Occurs rarely throughout Central and Northern Europe. 

 CTo be continuedj. 



AMARA ANTEOBIA, Villa, A BRITISH INSECT. 

 BY "W. E. SHAEP, P.E.S. 



My friend, the Kev. G. A. Crawshay, recently sent me some 

 specimens of an Amara — taken by himself at Leighton Buzzard, Bed- 

 fordshire, at roots of grass in sandy places — as questionable A. lucida, 

 Duft., drawing my attention to the fact that they possessed the pre- 

 scutellary pore, the absence of which is supposed to characterize that 

 species. On examination it occurred to me that they might be 

 referable to A. anthohia, Villa, a species not uncommon in France, 

 and as I could find no authentic specimen of that species here, I sent 

 one of Mr. Crawshay's examples to M. Bedel, who returned it as 



* The examples taken at Gibside were on the average smaller than T. nutica, being inter- 

 mediate in size between that species and 7'. atnea. 



