82 iMnil 



TRIBOLIUM FERRUaiNEUM (Fabr.). 

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



At the request of M. Fauvel I recently examined the type of 

 Tenehrio ferrugineus of Fabricius [Spec. Ins., i, p. 324! (1781) — hab., 

 Africa sequinoct.), still preserved in the Banksiau collection at the 

 British Museum, and to my astonishment it proved to be totally unlike 

 a Ti'iboJium, to which genus it had been referred by all modern authors, 

 and was evidently a Cucujid, near Pediacus and Xenoscelis. My ex- 

 amination of the specimen has stimulated Mr. C. O. Waterhouse to 

 clean the insect, and publish a description of it [_cf. Ann. and Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. (6), xvii, pp. 280, 231 (March, 1896)] ; he also refers it to 

 the Cucujidae. I would observe that he might have gone a step further 

 and suggested a generic name for it ! Mr. Waterhouse remarks that 

 " the insect so long known in our collections as Triboliumferrugineum, 

 Fabricius, will of course have to bear a different specific name." This 

 is by no means certain, as the Tenehrio ferrugineus of his " Mantissa 

 Insectorum," or his Trogoslta ferruginea, may quite well refer to the 

 species known to us as Triboliumferrugineum. In Fabricius's descrip- 

 tions of Tenebrio ferrugineus [Mant. Ins., i, p. 212 (1787) —hab., Halle, 

 Saxony], Trogosita ferruginea [Eut. Syst., i, p. 116 (1792) — hab., 

 Africa sequinoct. et Americse Insulis], and Trogosita ferruginea [Syst. 

 Eleuth., i, p. 155 (1801) — hab., India utraque : destroying preserved 

 museum specimens, and also in bread], no reference whatever is made 

 to his original description in the " Species Insectorum." It is perfectly 

 evident that he confused more than one species under the name /errw- 

 (jineus, and till the contrary is proved, the name ferrugineus (1787) 

 can be retained for the Tribolium. 



Dermestes navalis, Fabr. [Syst. Ent., p. 56 (L775), and Mant. 

 Ins., i, p. 35 (1787)], from JNew Zealand, is given in the " Munich 

 Catalogue " as a synonym of Tribolium ferrugineum -. the type of this 

 insect is stated to be in the Banksian collection, but it cannot now be 

 found. Fabricius, in his third description of this species [Ent. Syst., 

 i, 2, p. 504 (1792)], refers it to Lyctus, and gives the antennae as having 

 the last two joints thickened : this character proves that the insect 

 cannot be that known as Triboliumferrugineum, in which the antennae 

 have the last three joints thickened. 



Ips festaceus, Fabr. [Ent. Syst., Suppl , p. 179 (1798)], from the 

 East Indies, is described as having the antennae '' articulis tribus 

 perfoliatis ;" it is sunk by Fabricius himself (Syst. Eleuth., i, p. 155) 

 as a synonym of Trogosita ferruginea. 



