176 [August 



surfaRes are the longest and stoutest ; 2 stout antevo-clorsal bristles in median third, 

 2 rather smaller postero-dorsal bristles opposite the latter, 1 posterior bristle at one- 

 third from apex, and 1 strong and conspicuous ventral bristle at one-thii-d from apex. 

 Hind Legs. — Femora with a single subapical dorsal bristle, a complete row of 

 antero-dorsal bristles, several rows of fine anterior hairs, a complete row of strong 

 antero-ventral bristles, becoming mingled with long, fine hairs towards the base, a 

 similar row of ventral bristles which, however, only extend along the basal half, and 

 a few fine postero-ventral hairs near the base. Tibix with a whorl of about 6 sub- 

 apical bristles, of which the strongest are those on the dorsal and antero-dorsal 

 surfaces ; a complete irregular row of antero-dorsal bristles, among which two 

 (sometimes three) in the median third usually stand out stronger and more con- 

 spicuous ; two postero-dorsal bristles at one-third and two-thirds from the base 

 respectively, sometimes a third (median) also present ; ventral surface bare. 



Edinburgh : April, 1005. 



THE EUROPEAN SPECIES OF THE GENUS TRIPLAX, WITH SOME 

 NOTES ON THE SPECIES WHICH OCCUE IN GREAT BRITAIN, 

 AND A TABLE OF THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS. 



BY PROP. T. HUDSON BEARE, B.Sc, F.R.S.E. 



During the past few weeks, in my endeavours to settle the 

 synonymy of the new species of this genus introduced into our 

 fauna by Mr. Bagnall, T have been consulting most of the literature 

 on the genus Triplacc, and it occurred to me that there were interest- 

 ing points to which the attention of our present-day Coleopterists 

 might be drawn. Marsham in his Ent. Brit. (LS02), p. 121, described 

 four species as occurring in this country, rtissica, bicolor, Jlava, and 

 castanea ; the last three were then described for the first time, but 

 the first of these three we now know to have been csnea, Schal, the 

 last of them was only an immature variety of russica, and about the 

 second I can say nothing, as I have failed to identify it. Stephens 

 in his "Manual of British Coleoptera " (1839), p. 138, in addition to 

 russica, cenea, and birolor, introduced rufipes, F., and ruficollis, Steph. 

 Mr. G. R. Waterhouse iu his Catalogue (L861) corrected the mistake 

 of Stephens in regard to hicolor, and thus introduced for the first 

 time ruficollis, Lac. = lacordairei, Crotch ; he, however, retained the 

 last two species of Stephens' list, though correcting their synonymy, 

 and identified ruficollis of Stephens as nigriceps of Lacordaire. 

 Mr. Crotch again drew attention to these two doubtful species of 

 Stephens in his notes on the genus (The Entomologist, vol. v, p. 7), 

 but from that date onwards ruficollis, Steph. (now identified as 



