1015.] 123 



in the two. I cannot, however, admit that this has been demonstrated. I have, 

 durinj^ the hist two or thi'ee years, had occasion to examine the male characters 

 in a gTeat many obscnre Coleoptera, and I find that the sac contained in the 

 median lobe affords most important characters, though the lobe itself, or the 

 accessoi-y external parts, may not offer any distinction of importance. I need 

 not ask reliance to be placed on my mere assertion of this, because I can point 

 to the work of M. Jeannel, one of the most talented of living entomologists, 

 who has established genera, and a classification of the Bathysciinae on this 

 character. Now it has, up to the present, been entirely neglected in Haliplidae. 

 Unfortunately it requires great skill and perfectly fresh specimens, for we have 

 Ijot yet succeeded in extroverting the sac in specimens that have been dried. 

 My friend Muir, who has an anatomical skill and patience of the rarest kind, 

 used to get at the sac by splitting the median lobe, or by injection, but this is 

 most difficult to do in very small forms, and does not give such satisfactory 

 results as may be obtained by extroversion by pressure in fresh specimens. 

 Neither nomax nor browneanus occur here, but if anyone will send me fresh 

 specimens we will see what can be done. — D. Sharp, Brockenhurst : Feb. 8th, 1915. 



The British species of Haliplus. — Through the courtesy of Dr. Sharp I have 

 received a proof-copy of his criticisms of my paper on some of the British 

 species of Haliplus. 



With regard to the specific identity of H. apicalis Thoms., and H. striatus 

 Shp., I am in the same position as my critic in that neither of us has seen 

 Thomson's types, but, curiously enough, the very words which Dr. Sharp quotes 

 from Thomson's description, and which do not agree with any Haliplus known 

 to Dr. Sharp, are just the words which first caused me to suspect the specific 

 identity of striatus and apicalis ! 



As to H. nomax and broivneanus I would point out that Dr. Sharp did not 

 separate the latter from the former on the character of the internal sac, and I 

 have endeavoured to show that, on external characters, there is no good grovind 

 for specific distinction. 



If characters such as those of the internal sac, so difficult to determine 

 even in fresh material, are to become a normal standard for specific distinction, 

 we shall require some name for application to groixps of species which are 

 otherwise identical, as correct classification will become almost impossible. I 

 look forward with anxiety to the time when the only true test of species 

 will be by histological examination. — -Frank Balfour Brov?ne, Cambridge : 

 February 16th, 1915. 



Notes on the two species of the Meloid-genus Hornia Riley. — Dr. Auguste 

 Cros, of Mascara, Algeria, has sent me a copy of his interesting accoixnt of the 

 life-history of Hornia nymphoides Escalera (Bull. Soc. d'Hist. Nat. Afrique du 

 Nord, Nos. 2, 3, 5, 1913), a peculiar Meloid closely related to Sitaris. In the 

 Ent. Mo. Mag., January, 1911, pp. 16, 17, I ventured to suggest that the genus 

 Allendesalazaria Escal., type A. nymphoides, fi-oni Mogador, was synonymous 

 with Hornia Eiley, type H. minutipemiis, from N. America ; but this was dis- 



