80 [April, 



NOTES ON BRITISH PHILYDRUS. 

 BY D. SHARP, M.A., F.R.S. 



1. — P. fuscipennis, Thorns. 



In his " Opuscula Entomologica " (No. 10, p. 1031, 1884) Thomson 

 describes as a new species a Swedish Philydrus under the name of 

 P. fuscipennis. His species has since been recognised by G-anglbauer 

 (Kaf. Mitteleur. 4, p. 24(5), who materially alters the characters 

 assigned to it by Thomson, and adds that the insect is distributed 

 over the greater part of Europe. Reitter also gives the species as 

 distinct, and says that it occurs all over Germany, but is not abundant 

 (Faun. German. 2, p. 363). 



From this we may infer the probability of the occurrence of P. 

 fuscipennis in Britain, and I have no doubt that it is fairly common 

 here ; as Ganglbauer states that it is in Europe generally. 



It is very closely allied to P. melanocephalus. The distinctions 

 are well summarised by Reitter, who gives as the characters of fusci- 

 pennis : " head and labrum in both sexes black, the sides of the former 

 merely narrowly yellow-red in front of the eyes, the terminal joint of 

 the maxillary palpi black at the tip." And he gives as contrasted 

 characters for melanocephalus : " clypeus and labrum, at any rate in 

 the male (which has the anterior claws incrassated) , yellow-brown ; 

 terminal joint of the palpi not blackened, at the most indistinctly 

 darker ; colour of the upper side brighter." 



These are likewise the characters given for the species by G-angl- 

 bauer, but with the addition that the punctuation of the upper surface 

 is generally somewhat finer and less close than in melanocephalus. 



If I am correct in considering we have both species in this 

 country, then GTanglbauer has reversed the fact as to the difference in 

 punctuation of the two, for, in Britain at any rate, the sculpture is 

 closer and stronger in the darker of the two fonns. 



Thomson's description was evidently hastily drawn up ; apparently 

 he did not know that in the section of Philydrtis to which these insects 

 belong, the claws of the male front feet differ markedly from those of 

 the female, and he appears to have compared a male of fuscipennis 

 with a female of melanocephalus, and to have given the sexual difference 

 in the claws as the most important character for specific distinction ! 

 G-anglbauer says that the male claws are similar in the two species, 

 and he is correct in this. 



