15G [December, 



Additions to the list of British Coleoptera, Sfc, including description of a new 

 species of Thyamis. 



LiTHOCHARis PICEA, Kraatz, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 1858, Bull. p. cxci. — 

 Among some Coleoptera submitted to me for examination by Mr. Gr. C. Champion 

 are a few examples of tliis well marked sjiecies, originally stated to occur near Paris, 

 and of whicli I do not remember any subsequent record. These examples were taken 

 late in the present autumn by Mr. Champion, when sifting dead leaves in Bexley 

 Wood, Kent. The species, on account of its colour (dark pitchy, with rather 

 lighter elytra, and ferruginous legs and antenna?, the latter of which have the six 

 basal joints slightly infuscated), is readily distinguishable from all our recorded 

 species ; and, indeed, can only be compared with L. rufiventris, Nordm., not yet 

 observed in this country, and from which it differs materially in the punctuation of 

 the head. It is in the same section as L. fiiscula and hninnea, being of the average 

 size of the latter, from which it may be known, apart from the above mentioned 

 characters, by its broader build, more slender antennae, more finely and closely 

 punctured head, more obsoletely punctured thorax, and much longer elytra. The <? 

 appears to have the hind margin of the penultimate ventral segment entire. 



Meligethes ochropus, (Sturm) Erichson, Ins. Deutscld., iii, p. 180. — It may 

 be remembered that this species has already been registered as British, but erro- 

 neously, as the specimens so recorded proved to be 31. brunnicornis. I have now the 

 satisfaction of adding M. ochropus to our list, without a doubt of its correctness, on 

 the authority of two examples recently detected by myself amongst M. difficilis in 

 Dr. Power's collection, taken by him in June and Augiist, 1862, in the New Forest, 

 Hants. I have also recently found a specimen among some unexamined beetles taken 

 by myself during the past autumn : this one was from Claygate, Esher, where I 

 found it with brunnicornis in September. The species is readily separable from its 

 yellow-legged allies by its very broad and short oval form, strong convexity, and 

 very widely and at the same time coarsely punctured elytra, on which the pubescence 

 is extremely short, and by the outer margin of its posterior tibiae not being rounded 

 outwards, but dilated in a straight line until the lower third, where they are sud- 

 denly and obliquely contracted. The armature of the anterior tibiae is as in difficilis, 

 only not nearly so long or sharp. 



It appears to occur on Lamium album. 



Meligethes Kunzei, Er., according to Eeitter (Rev. der europ. Mclig. Arten, p. 

 8G), is only a var. of c?i^ei/J5 ; but in this opinion I cannot agree, having taken 

 (always on Lamium album) great numbers of the latter, exhibiting the usual degrees 

 of small diffei'ence likely to occur in any species, but without ever finding amongst 

 them anything approaching to M. Kunzei, which has only occurred to me by sporadic 

 individuals, and which, from Mr. Champion's observations (p. 159), seems to occur 

 on Agraphis or Melampyrum. Herr Reittcr notices the greyish-white and extremely 

 fine pubescence, very dark (almost purplish) black and shining surface (never with 

 greenish metallic reflections on the thorax), lighter coloured legs and antennae, and 

 less strongly developed teeth at the apex of the anterior tibiae of M. Kunzei ; but he 

 says nothing of its considerably wider punctuation (mentioned by Erichson). I 

 observe, also, that it is comparatively a narrower insect than difficilis, with the outer 

 edge of the posterior tibiae, as in ochropus, not roxmded outwards for its iipper two- 



