1917.] 173 



We had one cltij' at Lymington Salterns, but a strong westerly 

 breeze made collecting in so exposed a situation rather difficult, and our 

 captures included onl}^ a few of the well-known beetles of the locality, 

 such as CiUenum laferale, Tacliys scutellaris, Trogopliloeus halophilus, 

 2Iicra1i/mmn hrevipenne, Anfhicics saT/'m/s and Jiumilis (both in plent^O, 

 Chri/soincla liaemojjfera, OfiorrJiynchus rurjifrons, Polydmsus cJin/so- 

 inela, and Sihinia arenarlac, the latter in number's, but mostly in rather 

 worn condition under its usual food-])lant. 



Aovangi, Lonsdale Road, Summertown, Oxfonb] 

 Juhj V.ifh, 1917. 



PEDIACUS DEPBESSU8 Hebbst, A SPECIES FEEQUENTING 

 PINES IN THE WOKINCt DISTEICT. 



BY G. C. CHAMPION, F.Z.S. 



Some 3'ears ago my friend Mr. Barton brought me for determinatit)n 

 a specimen of a Pediacus, P. depressus, which he had found in a pine- 

 stump near Woking {cf. Ent. Mo. Mag. xlv, p. 248, 1909). Since that 

 time I have constantly been on the look out for the insect in the pine- 

 Avoods here, but without success till July 14th of the j^resent year, when 

 I succeeded in capturing a dozen examples. They were found between 

 stacked pine-planks and logs, which had evidently been undisturbed for a 

 considerable time, as evidenced by the growth of line mould between 

 them, at the places Avhere the pieces of cut Avood were placed one across 

 the other. Some of the specimens Avere slightly immature, and it seemed 

 probable that they had bred in fungoid groAvth in the thin crevices, 

 feeding on the larA^ae of the other beetles, Typliaea, Coninomns, Corti- 

 caria, etc., found Avith them. The Cucujid-genus Pediacus and its allies 

 are certainly carnivorous, and some of them live undei* the bark of various 

 ti-ees, e. g. the common Silvanns miidentatns, the latter being noAv fairly 

 abundant in the pines at Woking, though in my experience it is usually 

 connected Avith oak or beech. The rediscorery of P. depressus at Woking, 

 therefore, confirms Mr. Barton's capture, as well as its association with 

 conifers, and this obserA'ation is again substantiated by the finding by 

 myself of a specimen of the same species beneath the bark of a fir 

 {Abies jyecfina fa) at Gabas, in the Basses-Pyrenees, in July 1914.* 



Beitter ('Fauna Germanica,' iii. p. 50, 1911), In his table of the 

 three European representatives of the genus Pediacus — depressus, der- 

 mesioides, awdfuscus, — states that the first tAvo are found beneath the 

 bark of deciduous trees (dermestoides in oak), and the third, fuscus, 

 under that of fir \_Abies or Piceal. Ganglbauer says much the same, 



* An example of Coli/dium elongatiim put in an apjiearance on this fir-stump while I was 

 examining it, a beetle not previously seen by me on a conifer. 



