ong FFebruary, 



memory, it may be of use to remember the insect to which it refers by a mental 

 inversion of the two names : sinuatocollis having the sides of its thorax much more 

 toothed than denticoUis, in which insect they are simply sinuate. 



M. sinuatocollis is apparently equally common with depressus, from which it 

 may be distinquished by the characters already given. It is also on the average 

 rather larger and more robustly built than that species (for I fail to see that it 

 is somewhat narrower, as Kraatz remarks ; indeed, it seems to me to be just 

 the reverse) with the thorax shallower and more transverse, and with a less distinct 

 middle channel, the legs entirely red, and the punctuation of the elytra much 

 stronger and not so close, so that they are much more shining. Although the 

 entire insect (with the exception of its legs) is pitchy-black, the sides, and especially 

 the hinder angles of the thorax, are of a lurid tinge, owing to their thinness, and not 

 to any actual colour. The anterior angles of the thorax are obtuse ; close behind 

 them is a distinct point ; the side is then rounded until the middle, where there is 

 another and rather wider point, followed by a shallow emargination, the posterior 

 and obtuse point of which forms the upper end of the large notch at the posterior 

 angles of the thorax, the lower end of such notch forming at its junction with the 

 base a very sharp point. The base itself is slightly emarginate over the scutellum, 

 with a wider and more evident emargination on each side, meeting the lower end 

 of the notch of the posterior angles. This structure of the base is more or less 

 evident in all the species. 



In the male the middle and hinder femora are thickened, with their tibiae 

 considerably curved ; beneath, the penultimate segment has a rather wide semi- 

 circular emargination, and the ante-peniilt. is slightly hollowed out for its entire 

 breadth. The emargination of the penult, segment is not so strong as in M. 

 depressus. These male characters appear to have escaped both Erichson and 

 de Saulcy. 



4. M. Eellevoyei, de Saulcy, Ann. de la Soc. Ent. de Fr., 4™'=serie, 11 (1862) 

 69, pi. 2. This insect appears to be common in certain parts of the London district : 

 I get it in my garden here, unaccompanied by any other of its congeners. Its 

 characters are very exhaustively given by de Saulcy, loc. cit. (who figures the 

 thorax in all its allies), who compares it with M. denticoUis, to which it is not so 

 closely allied as to M. sinnatocollis. He appears to have found it very rarely ; but 

 M. Ch. Brisout de Barneville (whom nothing appears to escape), at p. xlviii of the 

 Bull, of the same vol. of Ann., records it as equally common with the latter species 

 near Paris, and points out its true affinity. It is, I suppose, in consequence of the 

 comparison with M. denticoUis, that de Marseul (or his " Brachelytrologist ") in the 

 2nd Ed. of his Cat. sinks M. Eellevoyei as synonymous with that species : in his 

 more recent Cat. he omits it altogether. Either course would appear almost an 

 impertinence, in the face of so careful and correct a description as that of de Saulcy. 

 The insect was first introduced into British lists by Mr. G. R. Crotch, who, in the 

 1st Ed. of his Cat., records it as synonymous with sinuatocollis, and in his 2nd Ed. 

 places it (as Bellevoyii), as distinct, next to sinuatocollis. 



M. Eellevoyei is about the size of sinuatocollis, and exhibits the same thoracic 

 angulation as in that species, but in a very much less degree. The thorax, moreover, 

 is not so wide, and has distinct reddish lateral margins. The entire thorax and 



