THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XXXIL] JULY, 1899. [No. 434. 



MECOSTETHUS GROSS US, Linn. 



= flavipes, Gmel., Don., Steph. 

 = germanicus, Stoll. 

 = rubripes, De Geek. 



By W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. 



(Plate II.) 



In 1889 Mr. Eland Shaw wrote : — " M . grossus is distri- 

 buted widely over Northern Europe and in Spain in marshy 

 localities, and will, I expect, be found fairly plentiful in our fen 

 districts when properly looked for."* Eecent captures shew 

 that this prophecy seems likely to be fulfilled, and, in order 

 to enable any collector who should visit boggy collecting- 

 grounds during the coming August to identify the insect, our 

 editor has kindly placed at my disposal part of this month's 

 magazine for figures of the species, and a few notes upon it. 



At the date mentioned above, Mr. Shaw knew of but two 

 modern captures of this species : one specimen taken by Mr. 

 E. McLachlan in the fens of Norfolk, and one by Mr. H. N. 

 Eidley in Co. Kerry ; the latter recorded in the Ent. Mo. Mag. 

 vol. xx. p. 215, as Pachytylus cinerascens. Previous to this date, 

 however, the late Mr. J. C. Dale took the species at Whittlesea 

 Mere, Parley Heath, and in the New Forest ; while Mr. C. W. 

 Dale recorded it as occurring on the Dorset heaths and in the 

 Isle of Purbeck, the last specimens he took in the latter locality 

 being captured on July 27th, 1880. He says further that it " has 

 occurred in the West of Ireland, and in the counties of Dorset- 

 shire, Hampshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Nor- 

 folk ; and in former years in the marshes close to London."! 



* Ent. Mo. Mag., 1889, p. 418. f Entom., 1895, p. 333. 



BNTOM. — JULY, 1899. R 



