NEW BRITISH SPECIES, ETC., IN 1873. 91 



Wood). The species is considered by Mr. Crotch, in both 

 editions of his Catalogue, to have been accidentally intro- 

 duced (in the 2nd edn., coupled with S. similis, Er., a species 

 most certainly indigenous, having again occurred under fir 

 trees near Esher after an interval of 4 years, and the first 

 record of which " In sugar. Introduced," by Messrs. Adams 

 and Baikie, was in all probability erroneous), and it is omitted 

 from Dr. Sharp's Catalogue. It has, in company with some 

 few other species, never been included in any of the prior Ent. 

 Annuals, having apparently escaped observation through 

 being merely introduced by name in Mr. "VYaterhouse's 

 Catalogue, unaccompanied by any special notice in some 

 other publication. 



As regards the generic characters of the insect, — peculiar, 

 if only for the tendency to bilobation of the penultimate 

 joint of its tarsi, it is well remarked by Dr. Kraatz (/. c.) 

 that it differs from all- species of Sih'a?ius in its entirely 

 different facies, shorter and slighter antennee, of which the club 

 is more distinct, and the colour, sculpture and pubescence of 

 its elytra. He points out its various points of affinity 

 (especially the elytra! characters, ligula, mentum, scutel- 

 lum, head, insertion of antennae, and tarsal structure) with 

 Cathartus, a genus characterized by M. Reiche in Ann. 

 8oc. Ent. France, 1854, p. 77, for the reception of a 

 species originally from Cuba and Mexico (C cassice), 

 but now, having been taken at Marseilles and elsewhere, 

 accepted as an introduced European. Kraatz himself con- 

 siders both this species and advena as firmly established 

 in Europe, and also that the latter must be removed from 

 Silvanus and either associated with Cathartus or in a new 

 genus to be founded expressly for it. Stein appears to 

 have adopted the former opinion ; but as yet has obtained 

 no follower in it. 



