1P21.] 10^ 



p. 55, 1SG40, 1>ut tlu" fact that the length of the third antennal segment 

 in proportion to the fourth is normally greater in the female than in the 

 male he does not notice. Everts (Col. Neerl. 1901) pointed out that 

 the pronotum is relatively narrower in the male than in the female. 



The most striking character of P. kiesewwetteri, the elevation of the 

 alternate interstices, does not reach its full development in all specimens. 

 This circumstance was noticed by Kiesenwetter, who expressed the 

 opinion that abundant material from different localities might possibly 

 prove that P. castaneim, which he ascribes to Olivier, and his P. tricolor 

 01. were only "ab-arten " of the same species. I think that the insects 

 in question represent two distinct natural categories whose occurrence in 

 England it is worth while to record. Kiesenwetter's reference under his 

 P ^tricolor to Mulsant's description of P. tricolor is not easy to under- 

 stand ; because the latter distinctly says that his P. tricolor is an insect 

 having the 3rd and 7th interstices a little more raised at tlie base than 

 the otdiers ; this is often true of oiir castaneim, but is a very different 

 thing from the raising of the 3rd, 5th, and 7th interstices throughout 

 theii^ length which obtains in typical kiesenwetter i. It would appear 

 that MuLnt's tricolor, castaneim, and planum are all what we call 

 clstaneum F. With the exception of the expression " ecusson trans- 

 versal" which he subsequently modifies to -ecusson legerement 

 transversal," there is nothing in Mulsant's description of planum which 

 does not equally apply to our castaneum. 



Seidlitz (Fauna Baltica, 1891) treats of all the four kinds of 

 Priohium admitted in Cat. Col. Em-. 1906. He divides them into two 

 sections of which the first consists of insects having the pronotum twice 

 as wide' as the head, little narrower than the elytra with very strong 

 (nearly angularly) rounded sides, and the elytra separately rounded at 

 the apex This contains castaneum F. with the 3rd antennal segment 

 little longer than the 4th, and eichhoffi with the 3rd antennal 

 segment nearly twice as long as the 4th. I have not seen any PrwUum 

 of which it could be said that the pronotum was twice as wide as the 

 head His second section, in which the pronotum is not, or little, wider 

 than the head, comprises tricolor 01. with the scutellum as long as 

 broad, and planum F. having the scutellum broader than long. Our 

 common British species therefore falls into his second section, and since 

 its scutellum is at least as long as wide, it should, accordmg to Seidhtz, 

 be called tricolor 01.; but this change is unnecessary, because Olivier s 

 description of tricolor affords no means of distinguishing his insect from 

 the prior castaneum. 



Eeitter (Faun. Germ, iii, p. 308, 1911) deals with the same four 



