158 



[December, 



DESCEirTION OF A NEW BRITISH SPECIES OP EUPLECTUS. 

 BY THE RET. W. W. FOWLER, M.A., E.L.S. 



In June last a species of Euplecfus, which we could not recognise, 

 was found by Mr. Grarueys and myself in considerable numbers among 

 flood refuse on the banks of the Trent. 



Not long after their capture, I sent specimens to some of my 

 friends, aud among them to the E-ev. A. Matthews, who at once re- 

 cognised that the species was new, at least to the British list ; and as 

 it seemed to differ from all the descriptions of the continental species, 

 I provisionally named it JEupIectus Garneysi. In the meantime, 

 however, a doubt having been suggested as to whether it might not be 

 identical with the Euplf-ctiis minutissimiis of Aube, I forwarded some 

 specimens to M. Ch. Brisout de Barneville, who very kindly compared 

 them with the types of M. Aube's species, and has subsequently in- 

 formed me that they agree, aud also that they accord with M. de 

 Saulcy's (apparently not yet published) description of E. minutissimus. 

 At the same time M. de Barneville admits the incompleteness of 

 Aube's description, and it is certain that no one who only had the 

 description and figure of M. Aubeto refer to, would ever recognise the 

 two insects as identical : the sculpture of the head and the whole 

 contour seem entirely different, and no mention is made by Aube of 

 the sexual spine in his original description. 



Our insect from the Trent is an interesting and very distinct 

 species. It appears to have been originally noticed by Thomson in his 

 '" Skandinaviens Coleoptera," under the designation of E. amhignus 

 var. duplo-minor ; but with the single exception of the superficial 

 sculpture of the thorax, it has no one character in common with E. 



amhiguus. Its form, instead 

 of being short, wide, aud very 

 convex, like that insect, is 

 long, narrow, and very de- 

 pressed ; its colour, instead 

 of being dark, is decidedly 

 pale ; its thorax is of a totally 

 different shape, and its ab- 

 domen, instead of showing 

 the short and obtuse form of 

 E. amhiguus, is long and slen- 



1. Abdomen of £'m^j. minii;ijsi»iM«, Aubg((es<e Brisout), 9. cler ; a^aiu in E. ambiqUUS 



2. ,, JEup. aiiibiguus,^. • to ' • J 



3. Sculpture of the last two ventral segments of Euj]. the Segments of the abdomCU 



minutissimus, <J . ° 



4. „ „ „ £up. amhiguus, ,s. are nearly squal to one auo- 



