280 [December, 



forms being fully winged. Bedel and other authors, of course, note that 

 P. chrysomela has the elytra ovate and the humeral angles obtuse, but they say 

 nothing about the absence of wings. These two species, it seems to me, would 

 be better placed, either in a separate genus, or under Eusomus, which is practi- 

 cally an apterous Polych-osid with the humeral angles completely obliterated. 

 In the last Eiu-opean Catalogue both insects are included imder the sub-genus 

 Eustolus, Thorns., with such fully winged forms as P. jiavipes, cervinus, 

 fuscoroscus,&G. Eusomus smaragduhos, Fairm. (which I have taken in numbers on 

 Genista at Vigo, N.W. Spain), incorrectly given as a synonym of P. chrysomela in 

 the same Catalogue, is certainly a true Eusomus, and has no vestige of hiuneri. 

 Mctallites marginat^is, Steph., again, is completely apterous, like Eusomus. The 

 relative develoj^ment of the wings, however, in the Otiorrhynchids, is a character 

 not always to be depended upon, as I have lately come across a few fully-winged 

 examples amongst a very long series of a common American Tanym,ccus {varia- 

 bilis, Gyll.), which usually has them in a rudimentary condition and of no use 

 for flight. — Id. 



Athcta (Hotnalota) picipennis, Mann., in Ireland. — I am able to confirm 

 Mr. N. II. Joy's record of Atheta (Homalota) picipeimis as a British insect. 

 I took a specimen of it on the wing on July 4th, 1909, at Rathmullan, Donegal, 

 whicli agrees perfectly with my Austrian examples of this species. It is most 

 likely to be confused with A. cinnamoptera, Thoms. ; indeed, Fauvel, " Faune 

 Gallo-Khenane," p. 692, gives the latter as a synonym. The most striking 

 differences between these two closely allied forms appear to me to be as follows : 



A. piciPENNis, Mann. A. cinnamopteka, Thoms. 



Fore-parts less bronzed and duller. Fore-parts more bronzed and more 



shining. 

 Abdomen somewhat parallel-sided. Abdomen more pointed. 



Antennas rather stoviter. Antennae more slender. 



— M. Cameron, H.M.S. "Attentive," Home Fleet: November 1st, 1910. 



Occurrence of Lathrobium longipenne, Fairm., in the Oxford district. — I fovind 

 a small and rather immature Lathrobium at Tiibney, Berks, on July 29th, 1909, 

 in an unusual habitat for a member of this genus, viz., under a plant of Echium 

 vulgare in the middle of a dry sandy field. At the time of capture I thought the 

 beetle was a diminutive stray specimeu of L. pallidum, Nordm., already known from 

 the Oxford district (Ent. Mo. Mag., xliv, p. 135), but neither Mr. Champion nor I 

 cotild satisfactorily refer it to that or any other of our known species of the 

 genus. Quite lately, howevei-, we found it to agree with Fairmaire's description 

 of L. longipenne, as ti'anslated by Dr. G. W. Nicholson in his recent note intro- 

 ducing the species as British (Ent. Record, vol. xxii, p. 259), and oiu- determina- 

 tion has been confirmed by a compax'ison of my insect with the two specimens 

 (one fragmentary) in Dr. Sharp's collection at the Natural History Mvisemn. — 

 James J. Walker, Aorangi, Lonsdale Road, Siuumertown, Oxford : November 

 mh, 1910. 



