THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. XXL] DECEMBEK, 1888. [No. 307. 



ON THE CAPTURE OF FORMICARIOUS HISTERID^. 

 By G. Lewis, F.L.S. 



Last February, as I passed through Paris en route to the 

 south, I told Monsieur L. Bedel that I wanted to search 

 particularly for Hetcerii during the three months I intended to 

 be away from England, and his immediate reply was, "Find the 

 larvae of the ants and the beetles will be found amongst them"; 

 and M. Bedel afterwards said, " They are more easily found in 

 rainy than fine weather." With these hints fresh in my mind, I left 

 Algiers by rail, on the 17th February, for Bou Medfa, and, after 

 reaching the station there, an hour's drive brought me to Hamman 

 Rirha, the Aquse Callidse of the Romans. The altitude of the 

 hotel there is about 2200 feet above sea-level, and I did not at 

 any time go much higher. The weather was so bad that I could 

 not leave the hotel until the 21st, but then a short period of sun- 

 shine enabled me to reconnoitre with a view to subsequent work, 

 and I fortunately found a single Sternocoelis, which gave me the 

 clue to a spot which afterwards proved to be a very good place 

 for the species I most wanted. 



It is better to say here that on a study of the species I 

 brought home, I tliought it well to divide HeUerius into two 

 genera, — Hetcerius and Sternocoelis ; and a paper on this subject 

 appeared in the ' Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist.' in July. This 

 arrangement left only one African species in Hetcerius, Erichson, 

 viz., H. 2)licicollis, Fairm. The British species ferrugineus, 01., 

 which is the type of Hetcerius, is an insect which appears to be 



ENTOM. — DEC, 1888. 2 C 



