116 [May, 



evident that Power's insect is not the O. sparsus of the two recent 

 and trustworthy authors quoted. It may be said by others that both 

 these authors are incorrect, and that we must go only to the original 

 description. 



Fahraeus's description (Schonherr, Gen. Cure., vii, 2, 375) is too 

 long to reproduce here, but the (-'ollowing extracts from it are so re- 

 markably appropriate to a type specimen of O. sparsus (which M. 

 Bedel, with his usual kindness, at once sent me) that they are well 

 worthy of attention. Eeferring to the elytra we find :—''■ Interstitiis 

 subseriatim punctulatis ; nigra., liirsufie concolore,pr(Ssertim versus latera, 

 ivcequaliter adspersa, lituris niveo puhescentibus, pone medium dorsi 

 suh-hifasclatim, alibi variegatim congestis, macula quadranqulari, pone 

 scutellum communi, fulvo-tomentosa. * * * Pedes validiusculi, 

 nigri, griseo-pubescentes * * * forsis pallide tesfaceis." 



The intensely black colour of the type above referred to, on 

 which the snow^-white hair-like scales are so thinly spread as nowhere 

 to hide the integument, together with the bright fulvo-tomentose spot 

 behind the scutellum, are marked characters, which at first sight 

 would prevent the insect from being mistaken for any other British 

 species. Again, the intense black of the tibiae and very pale tarsi present 

 a remarkable contrast. These characters will not answer the Power 

 O. sparsus. The name " sparsus " is a very appropriate one for the 

 insect sent me by M. Bedel, which may be described as an O. iota in 

 which the scutellary spot is fulvous and the elytra thinly sprinkled 

 with thread-like white hairs. Its form is a little shorter and more 

 square than that of O. iota. 



I have not seen Mr. Donisthorpe's so-called O. sparsus, nor the 

 continental example to which he refers, but as he states that it agrees 

 with the Power specimen, it must be incorrectly determined. 



To complete my case, it only remains to prove that the Power 

 insect must be O. ilicis, Fab., or a new European species. The 

 European representatives of the subgenus OrcJiestes, i. sp., amount to 

 eight in all, but five of these have red integuments, those with black 

 integuments being fagi, L., quedenfeldti, Gerh., and ilicis. Fab. O. 

 fagi has no outstanding hairs, and O. quedenfeldti has, I believe, only 

 been found in the east, and has the base of the elytra double as broad 

 as the thorax. There only remains O. ilicis, F.,a very variable insect, 

 both as to size and markings. It has two named varieties, niqripes, 

 Fowl., and irroratus, Kies. 



12, Churchill Road, Dartmouth Park : 

 March Uth, 1905. 



