1886.1 85 



A NEW SPECIES OF BRATHINUS {SILPHIDM). 

 BY GEORGE LEWIS, F L.S. 



In the autumn of 1884, 1 received from Tezo, through the medium 

 of a Japanese collector I had sent in the previous spring to explore 

 the district of the Ishikari River, a species of the genus Bratlmius, 

 and as the discovery adds another peculiar and interesting form to 

 the list of insects whose congeners live in what are now, from a 

 physical and geographical point of view, the most divergent of countries, 

 viz., Japan and America, I think it well to offer an independent 

 record of the capture to the Ent. Mo. Mag. Leconte has described 

 in the Proc. Acad. Phil., vi, 1852, p. 157, two species of Brathinus, and 

 these, with the Japanese species, are all that are known at present. 



Beathinus oculatus, n. sp. 



Elongate, little convex, reddish-brown, smooth and shining. Antennsewith the 

 first seven and the 11th joints brown, 8th, 9th, and 10th white ; palpi piceous ; legs 

 pale. Head transverse, black ; forehead concave; eyes large and prominent, coarsely 

 granulate ; neck inconspicuous ; thorax smooth, convex, rounded anteriorly, and 

 somewhat elongate behind ; elytra very finely punctulate, in colour dark, with the 

 suture narrowly, and lateral margins broadly, pale. Length, 4 mm. 



Through the kindness of Dr. Sharp, I have before me examples 

 of B. nifidus and varicornis, and the chief points of difference I see be- 

 tween the three species are as follows : B. oculatus differs from nifidus ^ 

 in the three white joints of the antennae, much more transverse head 

 and prominent eyes, and in the comparatively small and inconspicuous 

 neck. From va7icornis it differs in having three white joints of the 

 antennae, instead of two, black head, in the place of brown, with more 

 prominent eyes, and by the elytra being free of setae. The setae of the 

 elytra are a salient character in varicornis. 



I only possess five specimens of oculatus, and three are unfor- 

 tunately in bad condition ; in size it is intermediate between nitidus 

 and varicornis, the last-named being the smallest. 



Wimbledon, London : 



June IWi, 1886. 



On the specific identity of Tephrosia crepuscularia, W. V., and biiindularia, 

 JEsp. — Some time in the year 1878 my late kind correspondent Professor Zeller 

 wrote as follows : — " I wonder why Staudinger separates these " {crepuscula/ria and 

 hiundularia) , "I deny their specific right, not allowing the time of appearance to 

 prove it. With us both are together, and, moreover, a dark variety." At the same 

 time he sent me dark grey specimens, with a challenge to pronounce as to which 

 they belonged, which, however, I was quite unable to do. As I was at the time 



