1910.] 141 



Bridge and Holme Lacy, common on Liriaria vulgaris : Cceliodes rv,ber,'M.avsh., 

 Bromyard and Westhide : Ccuthorrhynchus cyanipennis, Germ., Kerne Bridge, 

 common on Alliaria officinalis ; C. asperifoliarum, Gyll., rare on Cynoglossum 

 officinale, Great Doward: Bnlaninus venosus, Grav., not tincommon on oak, 

 Hiintsham Hill ; B. turhatus, Gyll., Devereux Pools (Wood) : Rhyncolus ligna- 

 rius, Marsh., Devereux Pools, in elm. 



" Stoneley," Reading : 



March Uh, 1910. 



PCECILOSCYTUS PALU8TRIS, Redt. : AN ADDITION TO THE LIST 



OF BRITISH HEMIPTERA. 



BY E. A. BUTLER, B.Sc, F.E.S. 



Whilst searcliiiiof for Strongylocephalus agrestis at the roots of 

 rushes in marshy spots on the Pendine Burrows, Carmarthenshire, 

 I have several times come across examples of a dark Pceciloscytus 

 allied to P. nnifasciatus, but not agreeing with anything hitherto 

 notified as British. The 5 might, in the field, be mistalcen for a dark 

 and dull P. unifasciahis, but the (^ is very different in coloration, and 

 a close examination reveals structural points in both sexes which 

 indicate the specific distinctness of the insect. Dr. Horvath has 

 kindly examined a pair of them, and has recently returned them to 

 me as P. pahistris, Rent. In his interesting " Hemipterolocjische 

 Speknlationem, II" (Helsingfors, 1905), Renter, while treating of the 

 progressive development of melanism observable in the species and 

 varieties of the genus Pceciloscytus (amongst others), gives the name 

 palustris to the darkest of the European forms of that genus. The 

 description and figure appended exactly agree with the coloration of 

 my insect. This form has by some Hemipterists been regarded as 

 a variety of P. nnifasciatus, but Renter himself seems to have left the 

 question open, as it had no bearing on the subject then under con- 

 sideration. His words are : — " Es mag iibrigens die Frage noch offen 

 bleiben, ob P. nnifasciatus und dessen sogenannte Varietaten nur als 

 solche oder als selbstandige Arten aufzufassen sind. . . . Jedenfalls 

 ist diese Frage von keiner wesentlicheu Bedeutung fiir die obigen 

 Betrachtungen, fiir welclie es ziemlich gleichgiiltig ist, ob wir hier mit 

 Varietaten, oder mit selbstandigen Ai'ten zu rechnen haben," For the 



M 



