1911.] 257 



the credit which is indeed dm^ to liiiii for liis painstakinji^ work on this difficult 

 genus. I do, however, think it is nio.-^t dangerous to play fast and loose in this 

 way with the original description of a species. Systematic Entomology would 

 be much more pleasant, and very much easier, if we might select certain forms 

 which we choose to represent certain species, ignore the original descriptions 

 and synonymy, and then work out a table to fit this selection. 



Liodes algirica. Rye. — Dr. Joy states {I.e. p. 167) : " Mr. Donisthorpe's 

 specimen .... is a small L. dubia"; Dr. Fleischer (Ent. Record, 1911, p. 44), 

 says the same insect is L. algirica, Rye ! Both of them have seen Rye's type, 

 and have examined very many more examples of the dubia group than I have, 

 so that my opinion cannot be of much value. Dr. Joy has recently revised the 

 British species of the genus ; Dr. Fleischer, on the other hand, has studied the 

 family for naany j'^ears. It seems to me that my insect differs considerably 

 from all the specimens of L. dribia I have been able to compare it with, in the 

 shape of the thorax, the thinness of the tarsi, &c., but Dr. Joy tells me these 

 characters are variable. As Dr. Joy himself stated, at a recent meeting of the 

 Entomological Society of London, that he did not really consider any of the 

 dufeia-group to be good species, and that L. algirica is nothing but a form of 

 L. dubia, it is viseless to discuss the question further. The specimen will 

 remain in my collection with Dr. Fleischer's label algirica attached, to show it is 

 the insect he considers to be algirica. — Horace Donisthorpe. 58, Kensington 

 Mansions, S.W. : October, 1911. 



Occurrence of Longitarsus 7iigerrimus, Gyll., in the New Forest. — I had the 

 pleasure of taking a specimen of this species in moss, in a boggy pit, on Setley 

 Plain yesterday. L. nigerrimus is closely allied to holsaticus, but is smaller, it 

 has no spot on the elytra, and the legs and antennae are blacker ; and the spine 

 at the extremity of the hind tibia is longer and more slender. Although the 

 species has escaped notice in our catalogues, yet it is recorded as found in 

 this country by Weise (Ins. Deutschlands, vi, p. 944). He states that it occurs 

 in damp places, from July onwards, in company with Dibolia occultans, and 

 may often be found in numbers in the refuse on peat-moors. He suggests the 

 possibility of its being Thxjamis atricornis, of Stephens. That species is, how- 

 ever, recorded by G. R. Waterhouse, on the authority of the Stephensian 

 collection, as being T. fiiscicollis. — D. Sharp, Brockenhurst : Sept 2dth, 1911. 



Homalota basicornis, Mtds. : synonymical note. — In my memoir on the genus 

 Homalota, I introduced H. autmnnalis with some reserve, remarking that the 

 male characters did not satisfactorily agi-ee with descriptions. A few years 

 subsequently Mulsant described H. (Alaobia.) basicornis as a new species, and 

 Ganglbauer states in his work (Kiif. Mitteleur. ii, p. 187) that my autmnnalis 

 is really this species. I have never mot with "auiuimiaZis " again until now, 

 so that I have had no opportunity of investigating the point in a satisfactory 

 manner, and the name aAitimmialis is still i-etained in our catalogue, notwith- 

 standing the synonymy given by GangUiauer. Yesterday I found a series of 

 the species in question under tlu^ l)ark of a fallen fir-tree, l)lown down here last 



