1905.] • 137 



these were marked Marsham types), and that the third specimen was 

 ru/icollis. 110.0.,=^ lacot'dairei, Crotch, and that this latter had by a 

 stranfi;e confusion served as a model for fis:. 4, plate 17, vol. iii, of the 

 " Illustrations," to which had been attached the name hicolor. It 

 will be seen, therefore, that as far back as 1868-9 a continental 

 authority of high standing had abandoned the notion that Gryllenhal's 

 insect was the same as Marsham's and Stephens', the evidence against 

 such an idea being overwhelming, and yet, strangely enough, Grangl- 

 bauer, in " Die Kiifer von Mitteleuropa," has gone back again, and 

 insists that Stephens' insect is the same as Gyllenhal's, though he 

 rightly enough ascribes Marsham's insect to (sneo, Sehaller. 



Mr. Crotch, in "The Entomologist," 1870, vol. v, p. 7, published 

 some notes, based upon Bedel's " Monograph," on the genus Triplax. 

 He there introduced the name (jyllenhali for hicolor, Gyll., and, 

 strictly speaking, Crotch's name ought to be adopted for the insect 

 we are dealing with ; as, since Marsham had already used the name of 

 hicolor for another species, Gyllenhal's name, according to the strict 

 law of priority, ought to drop ; but as nearly all the European 

 authni'ities seem to have made up their minds definitely to keep to 

 the name of hicolor, Gyll , for this insect, it seems preferable, for the 

 present at any rate, to retain that name. 



Thomson, in his " Skandinaviens Coleoptera " (vol. v, p. 295), 

 1863, retains the name of hicolor, Gyll., but considers Marsham's 

 insect to be a synonym of it. Stierlin, in "Die Kafer-fauna der 

 Schweiz," 1900 (vol. i, p 496), also retains hicolor, Gyll., and places 

 scutellaris as a synonym of it ; and this is the way it is treated in the 

 latest European Catalogue of Heyden, Reitter, and Weise (1S91). 



In concluding these remarks about the synonymy of this insect, 

 it ought to be mentioned that Ganglbauer has selected, as the name of 

 the species, scufellaris, Charp., for what renson it is impossible to say* 



A few additional notes as to its habitat may be of interest. As 

 mentioned before, it occurred with (snea, and this latter was in count- 

 less numbers, in fungi growing on elm and holly up to a height of 

 twelve feet, or more, but hicolor was more local, and was found chiefly 

 in fungi growing on elm, and later in the month on holly, and in 

 greatest numbers at a height of about only four feet from the ground. 

 There were numerous larvae in the fungi, most probably those of 

 hicolor,SiX\(\ in cells in the fungus stems I found some freshly emerged 

 hicolor. It appears probable, therefore, that its larval and pupal life 



* Ganglbauer probably considered it necessary to adhere to the strict law of priority, and 

 therefore to abandon the name bicolor, owing to its use by Marsham in describing cenea. 



