1910.] 267 



FURTHEE NOTES ON THE GENUS COLON. 

 BY NORMAN H. JOY, M.R.C.S., F.E.S. 



At the end of last year Mr. P. Harwood asked me to examine 

 some Colons which he had taken during the year ; among them I 

 fomid a (^ C. appendiculatum. Sahib., and an immature looking 

 specimen which I have since ideutilied as C. calcaratum, Er., both 

 taken at Burghclere, Hants. The bad weather this year has given me 

 very few chances to hunt this spot, but on June 21st Mr. Tomlin and 

 I spent a few hours evening sweeping there with a very satisfactory 

 result, catching a $ (7. appendimdatum and a fine ^ C. riffescens, Kr. 

 On July 13th, one of the very few suitable evenings this year, I spent 

 from 5 to 8 p.m. sweeping the same 100 yards or so of long grass, 

 obtaining two C. calcaratum and several other good beetles, including 

 Anisotoma hrunnea, Sturm, and Prionocyphon serricornis, Miill. Two 

 or three more visits paid by Mr. Tomlin and myself have produced 

 C. angvlare, Er., and G. denticulaium, Kr. This material has given me 

 the opportunity of thoroughly studying the British members of the 

 genus. In all the tables of identification I. have seen very few specific 

 characters are given, except in the case of males, so that the student 

 finds it almost impossible to identify a single female specimen. In the 

 following table I ht)pe I have overcome this difiiculty. I have deleted 

 two species which are given in Beare and Donisthorpe's Catalogue and 

 added C. calcaratum, w^hich they had erased from the list, as the records 

 of its captures were hitherto doubtful. 



Dr. Sharp has kindly allowed me to examine his specimens of 

 supposed C. puncticoUe, Kr. The one recorded by Fowler from an 

 unknown locality is a $ , and only differs from C. serripes in having 

 the thorax slightly more strongly punctured. I have a ? specimen 

 from Bradfield which exactly corresponds to it. As G. puncticoUe is 

 recognised almost entirely by the ^ characters and the " much 

 stronger " (Ganglbauer) punctuation of the thorax than in G. serripies, 

 it can hardly be included in the British list on these two ? examples 

 only. Dr. Sharp's two specimens, a pair, from Dumfries, are un- 

 doubtedly only G. serripes. 



G. microps, Czwal., described from a single female specimen, seems 

 to me a very unsatisfactory species, especially as no further examples 

 have turned up diuing the last 29 years, and I think there is little 

 doubt it is an abnormal specimen of some allied species. 



The following table of the British species of Golon is based on the 

 characters common to both sexes : — 



