1919.J 270 



record of a Hymenopteron borinj^ lead known to us is that of Vaysiere (Bull. 

 Soc. Ent. France, no. 17, 8th Nov, 1916, pp. 273-274). He states how the 

 larvae of Sirex gigas L. had been living in the wood underneath the lead 

 covering of tlie lead tanks of a lead chamber process in a chemical factory in 

 the South of France, and the imagines on emerging, finding the lead sheet 

 between them and liberty, bored through it. — F, Laing, British Museum (Nat. 

 Hist.), Cromwell Road, S.W. 7 : November \Oth, 1919. 



New Barh-beetles from Vladivostok : a correction. — This paper (a/tV, 

 pp. 246-251, pis. XV, xvi) was written in Russia in 1917, and accepted in 1919 

 by the Editors of the " Entomologists' Monthly Magazine " before I, as a 

 refugee, had an opportunity of examining in Sweden the Ipidological literature 

 of 1918 and 1919. An inspection of the lattev shows that my subgenus 

 Hylastinoides is synonymous with Alniphagus Swaine (J. M. Swaine, " CanadiMU 

 B rk-beetles," Part ii. Bulletin 14, Ottawa, 1918, pp. 43, 73.).— D. P.\rL 

 Spessivtsev, c/o Dr. Ivar Tragardh, Entomologiska Laboratoriet, Experi- 

 nientalfaltet, Stockholm, : October IQth, 1919, 



A note on the Melyrid-genus Ileteracrius Kirsch. — During a recent attempt 

 to name the British Museum material belonging to the genus Arthrobrachus 

 Solier (1849), I have had occasion to study the description of Heteracriiis 

 Kirscli (1865), and find that it agrees with the second section (b) of Astglus, 

 as defined in my "Notes on various species of the American genus Astylns'' 

 (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist, ser. 9, ii, p. 340, Oct. 1st, 1918), and it is also 

 obvioush'^ synonymous with Spinoastylus Pic (M(5langes exot.-entom. xxxi. 

 p. 21, Oct. 8th, 1919*). Heteracriun was treated by Kirsch as a subgenus of 

 the Chilean and Argentine genus Arthrobrachus , and this error has not been 

 suspected by subsequent writers ; he included in it four species from Bogota, 

 one of which, H. Jlavomaculatus li.ixsc\x = A. octopustulatus Goxh. (1880), and 

 the three others, //. sigtiatus, vittatus, and decoratus, are probably synonymous 

 with forms described by Pic or .myself, but this could not be satisfactorily 

 settled without comparison of the types. Kii'sch gave as the principal 

 characters of Ileteracrius, " Coi"pus elongatum, antennae laxius serratae, and 

 elytra sexuum diversa." The sexual difl'erence in the form of tlie apices of the 

 elytra is very remarkable; the spiniform armature, however, is peculiar to 

 tlie P , and not to the S ^s stated by the German author. His generic name 

 could be retained for the Tropical American forms possessing tliis structure, and 

 a new specific name would not then be required for A. vittatiis Gorh. (1882), 

 Y.hich is a true Astylns. Nine species belonging to it were enumerated by 

 myself (/. c), all from Colombia, Venezuela, or the Lesser Antilles, and various 

 others from the same regions have just been named by Pic (/, c. pp. 21, 22). 

 Gorham correctly identified the sexes of his A. octopustulatus, the elytral 

 armature being characteristic of the S in all other Malacodermata known to 

 me. The c5" metasterual tubercles were not observed by Kirsch.— G. C. 

 Champion, Horsell, Woking : October iilst, 1919. 



* Thi3 paper was issued a week later than one by myself on the African and Asiatic species of 

 the Malacoderin genus Melyris Fab. (^=Zyijiu F.) (Ann." & Mag. IS'at. Hist. ser. 9, iv, pp. 157-2iy. 

 October let, 191'.*). 



