NEW BRITISH SPECIES, ETC., IN 1871. 77 



the neighbourood of Lougliborougb, situated near Charn- 

 wood-forest, from the vicinity to which Mr. Plant concluded 

 it Avas to be found on the oaks in the forest." Some further 

 observations, entirely of a hypothetical nature, relative to 

 Mr. West wood's own suggestion that this insect was of con- 

 tinental origin, need not be here reproduced, On such want 

 of evidence as this, it was manifestly impossible for any odc 

 compiling a catalogue of British Coleoptera to include Serro- 

 palpus as truly indigenous. Had any one been so inclined, 

 there is nothing in Mr. Westvvood's original notice to point 

 to any particular species, except a somewhat unintelligible 

 remark that the longitudinal impressions on its elytra are the 

 cause of its specific name, and a statement that there is a 

 species in Dejean's Catalogue named S. Vaudoueri,-f Latr., 

 from the west of France, apparently undescribed, " whicli 

 may possibly be our insect." At the present time, after a lapse 

 of 30 years, without a second specimen of so exceedingly 

 conspicuous an insect being found, it seems additionally un- 

 reasonable to consider the species as truly British, upon the 

 evidence as yet adduced; although there would seem a great 

 probability of its occurring in this country, as it is found in 

 Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, Sweden and France (ascribed to 

 an author unknown to me, named " Hellwing," in Grenier's 

 Catalogue). It would not, however, be likely to be found 

 in an oak district, as it seems to live exclusively in the old 

 dry wood of firs and pines. Gyllenhal notes its being found 



primilus was found in the extreme inside corner of a little stocking be- 

 longing to one of my children, which had just passed through the ordeal 

 of the wash-tub ! The child is a baby in arms ; and I should be much 

 surprised to meet with the Slbynes at Putney, even in a natural locality 

 for it. E. C. R. 



f IVIulsant has, since the publication of Mr. Westwood's notice, de- 

 scribed a species from France, Germany and Bone, under the name 

 Vaudoueri ; this, however, is a true Phlccotrija. E. C. R. 



