]906.] 137 



Gy\].* B. fracticoriiisj'Piiyk. {durk form), Acupaljjus brunnipes, Sturm (formerly 

 not rare in ihe Sphagnum), A. dorsalis, Fabr., and Tomicus laricis, Fabr. — 'G-EO. 

 C. Champion, Horsell, Woking : May 12th, 19u6. 



Thyamis curta. All., as a British insect. — Mr. Newbery was unaware when 

 writing (Ent. Mo. Mag., xlii, p. 87) of the Isle of Man specimens supposed to 

 be this insect, that I had various others returned to me some months back by 

 M. Bedel as undoubtedly T. curta, so that we can still claim it as British. The 

 species occurred here in profusion in October, 1904, on a piece of uncultivated land, 

 much overgrown with Myosotis, upon which I think there is a great probability 

 that it was feeding. I only, however, netted a small series, not recognising any- 

 thing very special in my capture at the time ; stray examples have also been 

 found near Tring. 



T. curta may be distinguished from T. atriceps by its paler colour, and by the 

 punctuation of the elytra not being quite so deep. My specimens have the suture 

 of the elytra slight ly rufescent, and the apex only of the femora pitchy or rufescent, 

 whereas these parts in T. atriceps are usually wholly black, or at all events dark 

 brown, and the tibi^ also. - E. Gr. Elliman, Chesham, Bucks. : 3Iay 1st, 1906. 



Melanic Coleoptera in South Devon. — In the valley of the Dart, at Buckfast, 

 whilst sweeping in an orchard on September 9th, 19u5, I took a specimen of Lema 

 cyanella, L. {lichenis; Voet), entirely black and with comparatively dull surface. 

 Search for more was unsuccessful, nor did a single ordinary example occur. 

 Appai-ently a black form of this beetle is not uncommon in France, as M. Bedel in 

 his " Coleopteres du Bassin de la Seine," vol. v, p. 384, gives the colours of the 

 species thus : " bleu d'acier, verdatre ou noir." In the valley of the Walkham, in 

 October, 19u5, from moss on trees, I obtained four dark specimens of Paramecosoma 

 melanocephalum, Hbst. These would appear to be very unusual, as Canon Fowler, 

 Col. Brit. Islands, vol. iii, p. 328, says, " This species may be easily known by its 

 colour, which is very bright when it is alive." One of my examples has the elytra 

 quite black, concolorous with the head and thorax ; the three others are almost 

 black. On reference to my collection soon after the capture, I was surprised to 

 find that I already possessed two pitchy specimens from the same locality, taken so 

 far back as May, 1891, as well as one from Mary Tavy, and another from the Meavy 

 Valley, taken in 1901. The femora are proportionately darkened, and in the 

 entirely black specimen the tibiae are red at their bases and gradually darken to 

 their apices. Mr. Champion tells me that there is a certain amount of variation in 

 colour amongst the very large number of examples he has seen from Aberdeen and 

 Scarborough, some of them being entirely testaceous, but none are so dark as mine. 



I have also captured in the Plymouth district two rather small examples of 

 Pria dtt'camarse, Scop., extremely dark in colour. They occurred separately in 

 July and August, 1905, at localities several miles apart. The August specimen is 

 the darker, and is so nearly unicolorous that the usual sutural marking is scarcely 

 to be detected.— James H. Keys, Morwell, Lipson Road, Plymouth : May 6th, 1906. 



Mimetic resemblance between Labia minor and Lithocharis ochracea. — At Yel- 

 verton, near Plymouth, in July, 1905, I found the earwig, Labia minor, swarming 



My son also caught a specimen of this species on the wing on the same day at Blackheath, 

 near Guildford. 



M 



