50 COLEOPTERA. 



8. OxYPODA PECTiTA, Sharp, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., May, 

 1871, 187 (described). 

 umbrata, Rye (wee Grav.). 



This is the insect introduced by myself as nmhrata, and 

 closely allied to cuniculina, Er. {hrevicornis, Wat. Cat.). 

 I have in vain sent examples of it and of cuniculina^ point- 

 ing out their differences, to Dr. Kraatz and M. Fauvel; 

 each of whom has returned the two insects as conspecific, 

 i. e., as cuniculina^ Er. But there has, nevertheless, been 

 not a shadow of doubt in my own mind as to the perfect 

 distinctness of the two; and it is satisfactory to find that Dr. 

 Sharp has come to a similar conclusion. 



Dr. Sharp om^its all mention of cuniculina, Er., from his 

 Catalogue, adopting the opinion that Erichson described 

 '^ the true umhrataj under the name of cuniculina;'' from 

 which it is, of coarse, to be inferred that in his opinion cuni- 

 culina , Er., is to sink as a syn. of unibrata, Grav., (the 

 earliest desci-iber of a species by that name). Mr. Crotch, 

 however, in Col. Heft., vi, as before remarked, follows the 

 opinion that Gravenhorst's and Gyllenhal's species named 

 umhrata are distinct, and that it is the latter author's insect 

 which Erichson described as cuniculina; in which case 

 Erichson's name would stand (^;ace hrevicornis) for our 

 common insect. 



Compared with that common species, O.pectita is of a less 

 pisciform build, being narrower and more parallel, with the 

 thorax especially nari-ower and having an obsolete but always 

 more or less distinct central longitudinal channel, the abdo- 

 men not so pointed at the extremity, and the thorax and 

 elytra not so finely punctured. The anteimte, also, are dis- 

 tinctly longer; the sub-apical joints not being so transverse, 

 nor the apical joints so conspicuously larger than the rest, as 



