1915.! 323 



PhILYDBUS YTENENSrS, Sp. 11. 



Ill writing of P. fuscipennis last year, I alluded to a specimen 

 found in the New Forest as " most unsatisfactory." I have now, after 

 a good deal of search, found the head-quarters of this form in a spot 

 where it abounds, so that I have been able to examine some 200 

 examples, and have no doubt that it is a distinct species, for which I 

 find no name in foreign literature. I therefore give it one. 



P. ytenensis, sp. n. Ovalis sat convexus, dense, fort iter jninctatus, elytris sub- 

 tiliter, suhdistincte seriatim punctatis ; capite nigro, clypeo utrinque plus minusve 

 late flavo-signato ; palpis jlavis apicihus nigris ; thora,ce t est aceo disco plus minusve 

 late infuscato ; elytris pallidis, viacula humerali signaturisque externis basalibus 

 nigris ; subtus iiigricans, tibiis testaceis. Long. corp. 5 mm. 



The specimens found vary Ijut little, except as regards the colour 

 of the front of the head ; the rule is that the labruni is black in the 

 female, yellow in the male, and that the yellow colour of the clypeus is 

 limited to a spot on each side in the first-named sex, but extends 

 all over the front of the head in the male ; there is a good 

 deal of variation as to this sexual distinction, due, no doubt, partly 

 to maturity, and partly to decomposition ; and differences in the 

 extent and intensity of the dark colour of the disc of the thorax 

 are probably largely due to theSe causes ; the black colour of the 

 tips of the palpi is invariable, and is present even in immature 

 specimens. The pale colour of the elytra is also constant, and is 

 not due to immatui-ity ; it is, however, often made to appear darker 

 than it really is by the wings sticking to the elytra. When the elytra 

 are opened out they are seen to be pale yellow, with delicate, fine 

 shading along the series of punctures ; the systematic punctures that 

 distinguish the species from P . frontalis are easily detected : there is a 

 black spot at the shoulder, and some black marks (as in most other 

 species) at the basal margin and the front part of the lateral margin. 

 The crest on the metasternum rises abruptly and forms a well-marked 

 angle in front, this angle being slightly acute and distinctly prominent 

 owing to a slight concavity of the edge behind it. 



This species is readily distinguished from halophilus by the black- 

 tip of the palpi, and it is really very closely allied to fuscipennis, from 

 which it differs by its pale elytra. The dorsal blade of the aedeagus 

 projects beyond the cross-piece but slightly, and merely as a transparent 

 appendage. It is extremely similar ivl fuscipennis, rhe only difference 

 that I notice being that the aedeagus is rather larger and more robust 

 in the latter, and the dorsal Ijlade a little differently shaped. 



