NOTES ON COLLECTING, 



295 



()nelancholiciis, Fabricius). As all the British specimens have been taken 

 by Mr. W. E. Butler of Reading, I am indebted to him for the following- 

 facts from his diary: — "June 11th, 1H95, six Callidittm rariabile in the 

 stores, I found one last year on my office window, and having found 

 two this year I thought they must breed somewhere in the stores. I 

 knew one old brandy cask had something feeding in the wooden hoops, 

 I caught six ( '. rariabile crawling on the cask, so no doubt that is 

 where they came from." The following records of Mr. Butler are 

 interesting— " May 18th, 1896, about 24; May 19th, 12; May 23rd, 

 12; May '28th, 12; June 12th, several; June 15th, 4; June 16th, 3; 

 June 18th, 2; June 19th, 1 ; since then he has been able to take them 

 every year. The attack has now spread to other casks. The original 

 brandy cask, Mr. Butler believes, came from France, but had been in 

 his stores many years before then (1894). The beetles fly about when 

 the sun shines through the skylight, and are found paired on the casks. 

 There appears to be very slight variation, either in colour or size, in 

 the large number taken by Mr. Butler. As this beetle is not uncommon 

 feeding in cask-hoops in cellars in the wine districts of France, there 

 is no doubt as to how it was introduced. In general appearance they 

 are not unlike small rariabile of a much lighter build. The elytra are 

 black, thorax testaceous usually Avith two black spots, sometimes quite 

 black or with only the disc testaceous. Mr. Butler has one specimen 

 with brown elytra. They may be distinguished from rariabile as follows, 

 according to Aclogue — 

 " El. pointilles ou finem. ponctues. Pron. ord. tres 



tuberculeux. Une ligne longitucl. auxel. . . . . variabile, L. 



Subrugueux. Mesosternum prolongs seulem. jusquala J 



des hanches interm. . . . . . . . . . . melancholicus, Fabr. 



The following characters should easily distinguish the species : — 

 Elytra finely and thickly punctured. Antenns thicker, 

 with 3rd joint as long as 4th. Head with impressed 

 longitudinal line in the middle, sometimes extend- 

 ing to the margin of thorax . . . . . . . . variabile, L. 



Elytra thickly and more coarsely punctured, more 

 pubescent. Antennae thinner, with 3rd joint dis- 

 tinctly longer than 4th. Head without longitudinal 

 line . . . . . . . . . . • • . • lividus, Rossi. 



As this beetle has been breeding in England continuously since 

 1894, its claim to be added to the British list appears incontestable. 

 The range of distribution appears to be France, Italy, Greece, and it 

 has been introduced into the United States. 



Jg^OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



PoLiA CHI IN Rutland. — Both last year and this, about the middle 

 of August, I spent a few days at Stoke Dry, a Rutland village, some 

 2|- miles south of Uppingham. Here I found on the walls of the 

 Rectory, which is built entirely of Kelton stone, several specimens of 

 Pnlia c/ii. I have always been puzzled by the apparently erratic 

 distribution of this species, and never having found it, or heard of its 

 occurrence, in Lincolnshire, I was hardly prepared to come across it in 

 Rutland. According to Barrett {Leindoptera Brit. Ides,\y., 308), it occurs 

 in two isolated regions, eiz., Dartmoor, in Devon, and round Dolgolly, 

 in North Wales. Apart from these (and the capture of a stray 

 specimen at Oxford), its range m England seems to start at a south- 



