104* [August, 



HYGROPORA CUNCTAN8, Er. : A GENUS AND SPECIES OF 

 STAPHYLMIDM NEW TO THE BEITISH LIST. 



BY JAMES J. WALKER, M.A., E.N., F.L.S. 



While searching for Nanophyes gracilis among its food-plant 

 Peplis portula in a little damp spot on the open heath near Bracken - 

 hurst, in company with Dr. Sharp on June 24th last, I bottled a little 

 active black Staphylinid which did not attract much attention at the 

 time, but it proved on further examination to be quite unknown to 

 both of us. Dr. Sharp has since taken a very few more specimens 

 under similar conditions — one at least having been found on exactly 

 the same spot as the first — and these have enabled him to identify 

 the insect as Hygropora (Oxypoda) cunctans, Er., (Kaf . Mark Brand., I, 

 p. 349). 



Kraatz (Ins. Deutschl., II, p. 132), whose description is good and 

 unmistakeable, established the genus Hygropora for Erichson's insect, 

 mainly on account of differences in the mouth-parts from those of 

 Oxypoda. It was again described by Thomson (Ofv. Vet. Ac. Forh., 

 1855, p. 196) under the name of Oxypoda curticollis ; and the genus 

 Pycnarsea was subsequently established by him for its reception. 

 (Skand. Col., Ill, p. 29), His description agrees better with the 

 insect than that of Mulsant, though the latter was of opinion that 

 Thomson's species could not be identical with the species Mulsant 

 considered to be Erichson's H. cunctans. The figures by Jacquelin- 

 Duval (Gen. des Coleop., II, pi. 7, fig. 34) and by Eeitter (Faun. 

 G-erm., II, pi. 41, f. 20) are neither of them very satisfactory. 



H. cunctans is recorded from Austria, Germany, and Northern 

 Europe, but seems to be everywhere very rare. It may easily be 

 distinguished from an Oxypoda by the heavier build, and the shorter 

 penultimate segments of the abdomen, and it has a good deal of the 

 general aspect of a small specimen of Microglossa pulla., G-yll. My 

 example has a curious malformation of the antennas, the penultimate 

 joint of each being reduced to less than half the usual length, thus 

 appearing excessively transverse, though otherwise these organs are 

 normal. 



I am greatly indebted to my friend Dr. Sharp for most of the 

 above particulars and references respecting this very interesting 

 addition to our Fauna. 



Aorangi, Lonsdale Eoad, 



Summertown, Oxford : 



July Uth, 1914. 



