#^ ... . *^f^ 



JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. XX. No. 1. January 15th, 1908. 



Retrospect of a Coleopterist for 1907. 



By Prof. T. HUDSON BEARE, B.Sc, F.R.S.E., F.E.S. 



The 3'ear which has just closed has been marked by a greater in- 

 crease to our list than I have had to chronicle for some years, and it is 

 particulady interesting to note that two of the additions are species 

 new to science. I begin, as usual, with an account of these additions 

 to the list. 



Halipliis i)iii)iacHlati(s, Gerh. {FJnt. 2Io. Mafi., vol. xliii., p. 4). Mr. 

 Newbery introduced this species on specimens taken by Mr. W. H. 

 Tuck near Bury St. Edmunds. It is the most parallel-sided of the 

 nificollis group, and the dark lines are broader and more distinct than 

 in striatns, Shp., and fluviatilis, Aub. Mr. Newbery gave a table to 

 separate the four species of this group. 



Laccobius sinuatus, Mots. {loc. cit., p. 6). — Dr. Joy and Mr. J. R. 

 le B. Tomlin took four specimens at Lundy Island in April 1906 ; it 

 has also been taken at Cambridge (Gorham), and in North Wales 

 (W. E. Sharp). In his " Coleoptera of the British Islands" (vol. i., 

 p. 228), Canon Fowler says that simiatini is a synonym of >ii(/yieeps, 

 Thoms. ; in coming to this conclusion he has apparently followed Dr. 

 Sharp, who, in a revision of the British species of the genus (Ent. Mo. 

 Mafi., vol. xxi., p. 85), said " the determination of Motschoulsky'a 

 ainnatns as m'liriceps of Thomson is pretty certainly correct." The 

 European authorities do not agree with this conclusion of Dr. Sharp; 

 in both the first and second editions of the "European Catalogue of 

 Coleoptera," and in Ganglbauer's "Die Kiifer von Mittel Europa" 

 (vol. iv., p. 25B), niiiriceps, Thoms,., and sinnatiis, Mots., are treated as 

 distinct and separate species ; Ganglbauer, however, says of siniiatus. 

 Mots., "dem ni<jriccps aiisserst nahestehend," and, in the table for 

 separating the species of the genus, he relies upon one sexual character 

 only, namely that the under-surface of the intermediate femora in 

 niijricep^ is thickly punctured and pubescent. The Rev. H. S. Gorham 

 {loc. cit., p. 51), referring to his Cambridge specimen, said he did not 

 agree with the above opinion that the}' Avere simtatus, and he described 

 them as a new species ohlonuna, I must confess that this appears to 

 to me only to increase the existing confusion, and, in discussing 

 Ganglbauer's character for the male of ni(/riceps, Mr, Gorham said 

 that the " bristles" were only represented in his specimens by "short 

 golden pubescence," but I would point out Ganglbauer himself used 

 January 15th, 1908. 



