NEW BRITISH SPECIES, ETC., IX 1863. 79 



to four and a quarter lines in length, with tlie elytra black 

 and shining, four times longer than the thorax, their strise 

 less deep and more gently punctured, and the basal foveas of 

 the thorax thickly punctured. 



These differences of length, colour and striation in the 

 elytra appear in several specimens examined by me, and 

 extreme examples of either variety would answer excellently 

 to Thomson's descriptions of his two species; but unfor- 

 tunately I have also seen, and even from the same localities, 

 other individuals wherein a transposition of the above men- 

 tioned characters takes place : e. g., there are specimens with 

 very long elytra, the stride of which are gently punctured 

 and not deep, but they are red instead of black, and this 

 evidently no result of immaturity; again, there are others 

 with black shining elytra, but short, with deeper striae and 

 distinctly punctured. 



In fact I have seen the delicately punctured stride and 

 smooth interstices gradually (by a chain of examples) merge 

 into coarser and deep punctuation, w^th the interstices ele- 

 vated ; the lurid colour tone down to deep black, and the 

 short elytra become long. The females generally have the 

 elytra longer in proportion and more lurid in colour than the 

 males. 



I am indeed inclined to go further than expressing ray 

 belief that we do not possess two species of Patrohas with 

 long elytra in England, and to say that I strongly suspect 

 Thom.son has elevated a mere variety into the rank of species 

 without sufficient reason ; the only character given by him 

 at all opposed to this supposition being the difference in 

 punctuation of the basal foveae of the thorax. I have, how- 

 ever, seen certain small diversities in the degree of punctua- 

 tion of these fove£e in the specimens above mentioned, but 

 they are quite irrespective of the other characters by which 



