1902] 147 



QUEDIUS OBLITERATUS, Er., CONFIRMED AS BRITISH. 

 BY JAMES H. KEYS, F.E.S. 



For some considerable time Mr. E. A. Newbery and myself have 

 been in doubt as to the identity of a species of Quedius, taken at 

 Plymouth, and doing duty in our collections as Q. suturalis, Kies. 

 By the kindness of Monsieur A. Fauvel, however, the matter has 

 been settled, fifteen of the insects in question recently sent to that 

 authority having been determined by him as Q. obliteratus, Er. 



Although not included in Canon Fowler's work, nor in Cox's 

 Handbook, this beetle can hardly be regarded as new to the British 

 list, as it is enumerated by T. Y. Wollaston in his " Note on the 

 Coleoptera of the South of Ireland " (Zoologist, 1847, pp. 1570-6) ; 

 and it is also ascribed to Great Britain, on the authority of Wollas- 

 ton, by Fauvel in his Faune Gallo-Khenane, vol. iii, p. 524. It is 

 interesting, therefore, to establish the species as a British insect. 



In general character and in the close and fine punctuation of its 

 elytra Q. obliteratus, Er., is very like Q. maurorufus, Gr. ; it should, 

 therefore, be placed near that species in the British list ; in colouring, 

 however, it is similar to Q. suturalis, Kies., but this latter insect is 

 abundantly distinct by reason of its coarser and much more remote 

 elytral punctures. 



The following details, if used as addenda to the synoptical table 

 in Canon Fowler's Coleoptera, vol. ii, p. 238, line 21, will help to dis- 

 tinguish Q. maurorufus and Q. obliteratus. 

 A. Elytra finely and more or less thickly punctured. 



a. Elytra brown or pitchy, often with the extreme margins and suture 



reddish Q- maurorufus, Gr. 



b. Elytra brown or pitchy, with the suture, apex, sides and humeral streak 



yellow or reddish-yellow ; often yellow, with the scutellar region, and a 

 broad streak extending therefrom, and nearly reaching apex, black... 



Q. obliteratus, Er. 



Q. obliteratus, Er., has occurred to me in some numbers at 

 Plymouth, in rotting straw used as a winter covering for mangolds, 

 and two examples were recently taken from some straw in a wood 

 several miles distant from the first-named habitat. I have also one from 

 St. Margaret's Bay, taken by Mr. A. Beaumont. Mr. E. A. Newbery 

 has an example taken from a wasp's nest at Bury, by Mr. W. H. Tuck ; 

 Mr. Champion has a specimen from Lee, Kent ; and Mr. J. J. Walker 

 has taken it in the Isle of Sheppey. 



June 10th, 1902. 



M 2 



