inO VARIETIES OF COPTENGIS. 



NOTE XV. 



ON UNRECORDED VARIETIES OF COPTENGIS 

 SHEPPARDI, CROTCH AND OF C. PASCOII, CROTCH. 



the Rev. H. S. GORHAM. 



There are in the Leyclen Museum eleven specimens of 

 a Coptengis which in all respects agrees with C. sheppardi 

 except that the thorax and elytra are wholly unspotted , 

 one might have thought that these, which are all from 

 Morotai (Bernstein), would prove to be a distinct species; 

 and I believe in fact it are similar specimens which have been 

 so described by Crotch, as C. wallacii, but his collection is 

 not now with me , and I cannot speak with certainty of 

 this. That these are only varieties is confirmed by the fact 

 that I have C. sheppardi , in which, the two hinder spots 

 are wanting and that I find it variable as regards the 

 thoracic spots. 



But what is more remarkable is that from the same 

 collection (Morotai, Bernstein) are four specimens which 

 I cannot separate from C. pascoii Crotch except by the 

 unspotted elytra. And on studying these two species , I 

 cannot find any structural difference whatever , that is 

 constant, the difference between them being a colour one 

 of the legs alone , that of the body and elytra being evidently 

 variable and local. It is , however , to be observed that 

 the colour of the legs is so very constant in Erotylidae , that 

 I am far from asserting that these two forms are not spe- 

 cifically distinct, on the contrary I think them to be so. 



Notes from ttie Leyden üMiaseum, Vol. XII. 



