COLKOPTKR\. 99 



OLEOPTERA. 



On a blue aberration of Calosoma inquisitor, L., from the 

 New Forest. — British specimens of Calosoma inquisitor are usually 

 of a bronzy-red, with the lateral margins of elytra brassy-green ; 

 some specimens are of a darker red than others, and individuals 

 not infrequently occur which may fairly be described as castaneous. 

 Amongst a number of (■. inquidtor taken by myself, near Brocken- 

 hurst, at Whitsuntide last year, however, I found a single specimen 

 which differs completely in the coloration of the upper surface from 

 our ordinary reddish forms, and Mr. R. W. Lloyd has kindly sent me, 

 for examination, a specimen also from the New Forest, which, in 

 colour, almost exactly resembles mine. These two specimens may be 

 briefly described as follows : — Head and thorax dull aeneous, with the 

 lateral margins of the latter in ]\Ir. Lloyd's specimen, but only the 

 basal angles in mine, blue ; elytra blue, with an obscure aeneous 

 tinge on each side of suture towards base, margins rich deep blue ; 

 sculpture of elytra as in ordinary form. Both specimens are 5 s, 

 mine being much larger than Mr. Lloyd's. On the Continent, 

 C. inquisitor is well known as a variable species in colour. Schaum, 

 in Band I, of the Insekten Deutscldands, describes it as being of a 

 " lighter and darker bronze-colour, with the margins of the thorax 

 and elytra green, more rarely quite bronze-green, bluish, or blackish." 

 Ganglbauer, in his fine work on the Central European Carahidae 

 (1892), after describing the ordinary red form, adds "or wholly 

 bronze-green, bronzy-brown, violet-blue, or black." Bedel {Col. Faimr 

 da Basin de la Seine) records the blue form as occurring with the type 

 in the Seine basin, but more rarely. It may be worth mentioning, that, 

 in 1883, Signor Ragusa described", in 11 Naturalista Siciliana, a "■ var. 

 coerideum " of C. inqidsitor, which is characterised as resembling 

 Carahus lefebvrei\ in colour, and as ditfering from the type, not only 

 in colour, but also in its large size, and by the elytra being " not 

 punctate-lineate, and by having, instead of the lines, strong points." 

 He had only a single specimen of this form, but remarked that Herr 

 E. Reitter had communicated a specimen almost identical with it 

 from Croatia. I find that this var. eoeralenin, Ragusa, is included 

 in a paper by Jaroslau R. von Lomnicki, on the Carahiuae of Galicia 

 (published in the Verlunidlinujen der I\.-K. z.-b. Gcsells, in Wien, 

 for 1893), as occurring in the forests of the Austrian province of 

 Galicia, but "more rarely" than the type. I am not at all clear as 

 to what Ragiisa's structural distinction really means, as in addition to 

 the longitudinal stride of the elytra in the type, there are the " pores," 

 possibly he intends to indicate that the elytra in the aberration are 

 smooth, and impunctate with the exception of the pores, but the 

 matter is doubtful. Ganglbauer, I may add, does not allude to this 

 "var. coerideiuii'' in his work. — F. B. Jennings, F.E.S., 152, Silver 

 Street, Upper Edmonton, N. March, 1902. 



COCCINELLA 11 -punctata VAR. CONFLUENS, N. VAR. — 111 1890, in the 



Knt. Mo. Maij., p. 199, Dr. Mason records, amongst other Coleoptera 

 from Iceland, a form of Coccinella ll-imnctata, brightly coloured and 



* This description was kindly procured for me by Mr. Donisthorpe, and I am 

 indebted to Mr. Malcolm Burr, for a translation from the Italian. 

 t A species coloured like our C intricatu.'^. 



