78 [April, 



tured one at Esher in 1875, and there are specimens without data, but 

 probably taken in the New Forest, in the Stephensian Collection in 

 the British Museum. 



The food-plant remains uncertain : Chappell, it is true, recorded 

 his captures as having been made on " Cotton-grass " (Eriophorum 

 polystachynm) ; but such a pabiilum seems intrinsically improbable for 

 a Crypfocephaius, and there was certainly no Cotton-grass on the bank 

 whence Prof. Beare and myself swept up three specimens of this beetle 

 last August, a careful examination of the locality revealing only ling, 

 heather, tormentilla, knapweed, perhaps some plants of a dwarf 

 sallow, and grass. 



2. A polychromatic species, the elytra, vaiying from entirely red, through 

 all forms of red with black, or black with red markings, to entirely 

 shining black ; punctiires of elytral sti-iae shallower and interstices 

 flatter than in higuttatus ; aedeagus as in h. Length 4-0 mm. 



hipunctatus L. 



Of the very variable group of which it is a member, this seems to 

 be one of the most inconstant forms. 



The following named varieties are recognised on the Continent : 



(o) Elytra entirely red inimaculatiis Pic 



(6) Elytra with a broad longitudinal black stripe on each.... 



. . .sanguinolentus Scop. {=^lineola F.) 



(<■) Elytra with black shoulder spots only immaculipennis Pic 



{d) Elytra black, with narrow red-yellow mark at apex... 



thomsoni Weise 

 (e) Elytra black, with small mark at base, and apex broadly red... 



. . . quadrinotatus Schaff. 

 (/' ) Elytra entirely shining black clericals Seidl. 



The so-called "typical" form has the elytra red, with a small black 

 spot on each shoulder, and a larger oblong one behind the middle of 

 each elytron. Perhaps, however, a protest may here be allowed 

 against the use of the word " type " with such a connotation. Quite 

 strictlj that word should imply something primitive, or, in a broad 

 sense, representative — some form from which it might be assumed 

 other less frequent varietal forms have been derived ; but in practice, 

 as of course every one knows, the " type " of a species simply means 

 that individual, or set of individuals, from which the " species " was 

 originally described, and in a highly variable insect there is nothing 

 to prevent that description being made from one of its rarest forms, 

 so that the paradox becomes established, as in fact has been the case 



