80 f^P"^- 



ON THE BRITISH SPECIES OF TYCHIUS, Germak. 

 BY JAMES EDWARDS, F.E.S. 



The primary object of this notice is to call atteutiou to a well- 

 ascertained species of the genus Tychivs M-hich does not appear in the 

 latest Catalogue of British CoJeoiAera. This is Jumnato^ms, Gyll., the 

 juneeus of Boheman and Schouherr. It belongs to the section in which 

 the paler marking of the elytra, if present at all, is confined to the first 

 interstice in the form of a more or less distinct sutxiral stripe ; the 

 antennae and legs are entirely pale ; the rostrum is not distinctly 

 subulate ; the elytral scales are elongate, those arising from the 

 pimctures in the strise not evidently different from the remainder ; 

 the anterior femora of the male have no fringe of hair- scales on the 

 under- side ; the anterior tibiae in the same sex are bisinuate on the 

 inner edge ; and the greatest width of the thorax in the female is 

 distinctly less than that of the elytra. 



There is probably no other genus of British Coleoptera in which 

 so much confusion has arisen in consequence of different writers 

 having employed the same name for species which are not identical ; 

 and as the difficulties are not entirely removed by the account of the 

 genus which occupies pp. 296-301 of the fifth vokime of Col. Brit. 

 Islands, it may be useful to review some of the descriptions there 

 given, in relation to the insects themselves. Of T. venustus, F., one 

 reads : " in some specimens the elytra are unicolorous ; this is the var. 

 fjenisUe, Boh." But, seeing that genistx, Boh. (from Spain), is found 

 on Genista tinctoria, and venustus, F., on broom, it may be doubted 

 whether Boheman' s name can properly be applied to specimens of 

 venustus from broom, merely because they have the elHra unicolorous. 

 Whatever may be the real status of genistx, Boh., it should have 

 the scaling of the elytra unicolorous whitish-grey, and the apex 

 of the rostrum, the antennae, and the tibiae rust-red. I have 

 not met with any record of a TycMus from Genista tinctoria in Britain. 

 T. ])olylineatus. Germ. : I am indebted to Mr. Donisthorpe for the 

 opportimity to examine a female specimen of this species taken by 

 him at Ditchling, Sussex, at roots of grass on September 5th, 1909 ; 

 it resembles T. schneideri in the conspicuous striping of the elytra, and 

 T. lineatulus in the single white thoracic line, but differs markedly in 

 form from either. T. meliloti, Steph. : all the specimens of this species 

 which I have seen have the elytral striae distinct ; fig. 13 on Plate 168, 

 of which, by the courtesy of Dr. Fowler, I have seen the original, repre- 

 sents T. squamulatus, Gyll., and not T. meliloti, Steph. T. lineatulus, 

 Steph., is well characterized in the text, and the figure 12 on Plate 168 



