262 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



a larger series, however, shows that it is not a defined 

 variety, but a mere lack of development, as I have now every 

 stage, from the perfectly simple to the immensely clavate 

 thighs so characteristic of the large males. It is correlative 

 with size in some degree, as all the small ones are less deve- 

 veloped and below three lines ; I have never seen one wilh 

 thickened thighs. The variation in colour is very great ; 

 the males are typically leaden grey, having the thorax bor- 

 dered with testaceous and with a central line of the same 

 colour; but this line disappears, and the elytra along the ex- 

 ternal margin, or at the suture, or both, become testaceous, 

 this colour occasionally even predominating; one variety 

 which I have is very singular, with two round testaceous 

 spots just within the apex. The females are of a reddish 

 testaceous; the thorax with two black dots, which vary in 

 extent and intensity. The size is remarkably inconstant ; 

 some of my smallest specimens do not exceed "i^^ lines, while 

 the largest are from 6 to 7 lines: the males are fully equal to 

 the females in length, but not in breadth. A careful descrip- 

 tion of its various varieties will be found in a paper by MM. 

 Banseand Matz(Stetl.Ent.Zeit. 162,1841), where they describe 

 it at great length. I have retained the generic name Nothus 

 (Oliv. 1811), by which it is most known in this country, 

 since, although it was called Osphya by lUiger in 1807, no 

 characters were given ; hence the name is not entitled to 

 precedence. The species was originally described by Fa- 

 briciiis in 1775, under the name of bipunctatus, and from 

 female specimens only : the male was made known by 

 Olivier, and described as clavipes, and subsequently as prae- 

 ustus for both sexes ; MM. Banse and Matz, Redtenbacher 

 (F. A. 658) and Lacordaire (Gen. v. 562), consider that the 

 latter name, as the first applicable to the species as a whole, 

 should be retained. Where a syiecies is first described from 

 a variety, it would be absurd to transfer this name to the 

 type ; hence a later name may appear first, — as Nolophilus 

 biguttatus, Fah. (1781), — which, if the existence of varieties 

 be only properly recognized, is of no importance. Here, 

 however, there would not seem sufficient warrant for altfiing 

 a long-established name. This insect is apparently scattered 

 over much of the European continent, but its home is evi- 

 dently in the eastern portions, it increasing in rarity as we 



