144 SEIRA. 



I have proposed this genus for the scaled species 

 ■which were placed by Nicolet among the Degeerioe, 

 because it seems tcf me manifestly unnatural to unite 

 in the same genus species with and without scales. 

 Like the preceding genus, Seira^ forms a very interest- 

 ing link between several genera — a fact which I have 

 endeavoured to indicate in the name. Indeed, some of 

 the species approach very closely to Lepidocyrtus ; and 

 as regards S. BiisJdi, I was long in doubt whether to 

 regard it as a Seira or a Lepidocyrtus. The form of the 

 thorax, which is the characteristic on which the latter 

 genus was founded, admits of every gradation, and 

 therefore it is not very easy of application. 



Seira domestica, Nicolet. 



Degeeria domestica, Nicolet. Mem. Soc. Ent. Helv. 

 — — Aim, Soc. Ent. France, 1847. 



Nicolet's description of this species is as follows :— 



" Memes antennes que le precedent, mais blanches, 

 ainsi que le dessous du corps, les pattes et la queue. 

 Dessus du corps ecailleux, d'un blanc sale tres-luisant, 

 avec quatre bandes transversales et plusieurs taches 

 d'un gris fence un pen rougeatre. Tete blanche. 

 Yeux noirs. Foils gris et longs. Sixieme segment 

 comme dans I'espece precedente. 



" Longueur : 1-|— 3 millimetres. 



" Cette espece se trouve dans les maisons, oii elle 

 vit solitaire ; rare." 



Mr. Mclntire has found this species occasionally in 

 Millbank and Brixton prisons. It is, however, as 

 Nicolet says, '' rare." I have never met with it. 



The antennae are long and slender. 



^ From crtipd, a cliain. 



