96 COLEOPTERA. 



that his best feature, that of the toothing of the posterior 

 femora, is really only sexual, though he treats it as specific. 



G. foveatus is stated by Mr.rsham to be most like 

 spiniger, but to have 4 excavated punctures on the thorax 

 {inde nomen), the disc of which is more remotely and the 

 sides more thickly punctured ; a violet scutellum ; the 

 margins of the sulcate elytra and thorax blackish-blue ; the 

 posterior femora with one or two denticles ; the anterior 

 tibise 6-dentate, the tarsi pitchy ; and to be 7 lines long. 

 The smaller size, violet scutellum, blackish-blue margins, 

 sulcate elytra, and occasionally single-toothed hind femora 

 of this description, cause it to be " ausreicheud gekenn- 

 zeichnet," teste Harold. 



In my own small series of British examples of this 

 group, I have no difficulty whatever in quadrating both 

 sexes of stercorarius and spiniger; but I find nothing 

 agreeing with foveatus (Harold). I have a very small 

 race, with bright thorax, bluish-green scutellum, bright 

 greenish and deeply sulcate elytra, with the middle of the 

 abdomen strongly punctured, and only one appreciable pos- 

 terior femoral tooth, and which so far accords with the last 

 named insect : but the male most distinctly has the anterior 

 tibiai keeled and constructed beneath precisely as in sterco- 

 rarius, like which it also has the mandibles with only one 

 external flexure, and of which I think it is nothing but a 

 small form. I have also a still smaller form of spiniger 

 (but only females), in which, instead of being dull black, the 

 surface, and especially the thorax, is very bright. 



I strongly suspect that ^'•foveatus''' is a myth ; and, 

 indeed. Baron Harold's own remarks on it (p. 92, in cormec- 

 tion with possible crossings between the opposite sexes of 

 the other 2 species) almost prepare one for that conclusion. 



