CRIOCEPHALUS POLONICUS, .MOTSCH. 259 



Confined in a glass-topped box, the 2 s do not lay at all freely. 

 Of one pair I had, however, the 2 laid just over 90 eggs, mostly in 

 two batches of 40 and 35, the remainder being laid in small batches 

 of about half-a-dozen. When laid in a single layer the eggs appear 

 to be tilted at an angle of about 30*^, each successive row being laid 

 upon the preceding one, and at the same angle, so as to cover its lower 

 half, the inicropyle being upwards ; but, in most cases, a second layer 

 is placed on the lower, when the larva, escaping from the lower series, 

 must eat its way through the eggshells above them or die without 

 escaping. The eggs are of a clear yellow colour, uniformly coloured, 

 and without any ot the transparent areas described on the eggs of 

 some of the allied species (Brit. Lep., i., pp. 416, 472, 500, 520). The 

 egg is fairly regularly oval in outline, but somewhat flattened at the 

 micropylar end which appears rather wider than its nadir. The upper 

 surface is somewhat depressed towards the micropylar end, but for an 

 Anthrocerid egg it is fairly plump and its outline fairly regular. It 

 may be worth noting that, owing to the confinement, the surface of 

 the eggs are richly covered with scales, a fact that suggests also that, 

 freshly laid, the eggs are somewhat sticky. 



Criocephalus polonicus, Motsch.— a genus and species of Longicorn 

 Coleoptera new to Britain. 



By H. WILLOUGHBY ELLIS, F.E.S. 



During last year Mr. F. Gilbert Smith took some larvje of a longicorn 

 beetle in the New Forest in Scotch fir, and, after seeing them, I decided 

 to accompany him this year to that district to thoroughly investigate 

 the subject, and we succeeded in finding the insect in numbers. They 

 were all taken in the larval stage, the colony being a very strong one. 

 Soon after arrival home they pupated and eventually emerged, and 

 proved to be Criocephalus polonicus, Motsch., a large longicorn beetle 

 new to Britain. The conditions under which they were living left no 

 doubt that they had been breeding there for many years, and it is 

 most probable that they are to be found in other parts of the forest if 

 worked for in places offering the right conditions. 



The genus has been mentioned as occurring in Britain by the 

 capture of C. rusticus in South Wales, and the specimen has been 

 preserved in the British Museum collection, but there appears to be 

 no doubt that it was imported from the Continent of Europe in 

 timber, which is so largely used in coal mining in the neighbourhood. 

 Stephens, in his Manual, also refers to the same species as having 

 been met with in Britain, but remarks that it is not indigenous. 

 Under these circumstances the genus, as well as the species, may be 

 considered new to Britam. 



The distribution of C. polonicus (according to the localities 

 attached to the representatives of this species in the general collection 

 of coleoptera in the British Museum) cover the following countries : 

 Greece, Dalmatia, S. France, and Madeira, and other records give 

 Denmark, Syria, and Poland, the latter locality being responsible for 

 Motschoulsky's specific name. 



Wollaston recorded C rusticus from Madeira, but the specimen to 

 which the record refers, and which is in his Madeiran collection at 

 South Kensington, is C. pulonicus. 



