1886.] ijl 



THE EUROPEAN SPECIES OF THE GENUS CERYLOy. 



BT EET. W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S. 



Having had occasion to study the British species of Cerylon, and 

 having found the genus, although a very small one, involved in 

 considerable confusion and uncertainty, I set about obtaining repre- 

 sentatives of the known European forms, and through the kindness 

 of Herr Eeitter I have been enabled to obtain examples of all of them, 

 as he was good enough to entrust to the post even his almost unique 

 example of C. atratulum ; in the following notes I am much indebted 

 to Herr Eeitter's paper in the Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift, 

 XX, 1876, Heft, ii, p. 386, to which the student of the genus ia 

 especially referred, a particularly good plate of the several specie* 

 being given with the paper, which is worth far more than any mere 

 description. 



The genus Cerylon belongs to the Colydiidoe, and, until quite 

 recently, in conjunction with the single genus Philothermus, formed 

 the tribe Cerylonina, which is distinguished from all the other tribes of 

 the Colydiidce by the small acicular terminal joint of the palpi, the 

 penultimate being large and thick ; the first ventral segment of the 

 abdomen is elongate, and all the coxae are more or less widely separated, 

 Erom the allied genus Philothermus the genus Cerylon is distinguished 

 by having the club of the antennae plainly divided into two joints, 

 whereas in Cerylon it is, at all events, to all intents and purposes, one- 

 jointed, although the ridged appearance before apex (so evident in 

 Rhizojjhayns) indicates that the antennae are really eleven-jointed, and 

 the club two-jointed. I believe that lately one or two genera have 

 been added to the tribe, but I have been unable to obtain access to the 

 descriptions, and these ai'e, of course, not necessary for the present 

 paper. The species of Cerylon are small, oblong or oval, and more or 

 less depressed, robust insects ; they live under the bark of decayed 

 trees, logs, &c. ; the described species are upwards of thirty in number ; 

 these are widely distributed throughout the world, being found in 

 North and South America, Ceylon, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Madagascar, 

 &c. In the catalogue of Heyden, Eeitter, and Weise, eleven sjjecies 

 are enumerated as European ; some of these are exceedingly closely 

 allied, and there is considerable confusion regarding them : the chief 

 difficulty of determination lies in the fact that the shape of the thorax 

 differs very much in the male and female of the same species, in some 

 being subquadrate or even transverse in the male, with the sidea 

 rounded and widened in front, whereas in the female the same part is 



