Ludius. | SERRICORNIA, 95 
base, narrowed and rather acuminate at apex, with rather fine punc- 
tured striz, interstices distinetly punctured; legs black, tarsi sometimes 
reddish; the disc of the thorax is sometimes black, and occasionally 
the whole thorax is black; the latter is the v. oceztanicus, Villers ; very 
rarely the whole insect is entirely black. L. 14-16 mm. 
In decayed trees; very rare; Hyde Park, London (Rev. A. Matthews) ;* Rich- 
mond Park, Darenth Wood, Windsor, Clengre, and Bottisham (Stephens); Swanses, 
in old willow (Dillwyn); the latest capture appears to have taken place in July, 1858, 
when a specimen was taken by a schoolboy on a poplar by the river Cam between 
Cambridge and Grantchester, which was afterwards in the collection of Mr. T. Brown, 
of Cambridge ; a few specimens are recorded as having been taken at Chesterton 
near Cambridge, and at Bottisham, on walnut. 
MELANOTUWS, Eschscholtz. 
This genus contains considerably more than a hundred species, of 
which a large proportion occur in tropical countries; twenty-one, how- 
ever, are found in Europe, and the genus is well represented in North 
America, but appears to be almost wanting in Asia; they are, as a rule, 
rather large dark-coloured insects, and may be known from the allied 
genera by their serrate tarsal claws ; the forehead is obtusely produced 
in front; the antennze have the second and third joints short and nearly 
equal; the ventral epipleurze are wanting, and the eyes are more or less 
sunk in the thorax. 
The larva of M. castanipes is described and figured by Schiédte (Part v. p. 513, 
pl. vii. fig. 1) ; the pupa is also figured on the same plate; the larva is large and 
broad, quite linear, with the head transverse, with powerful mandibles and very short 
antenne, and the ninth segment of abdomen longer than is usual in the allied genera, 
sinuate at sides and contracted to apex, where it terminates in a blunt point; there 
is a deep channel all down the back of the thoracic and abdominal segments; the 
muscular impressions are small, dark, and elliptical, and are situated on each side of 
the anterior margin of the segments, the prothoracic excepted; the legs are very 
short ; the body is furnished on each side with small bunches of long setz on every 
segment; the pupais long, and terminates in two distinct cerci, but does not call 
for any particular comment; the larva and pupa are found in decaying trees or 
stumps. 
J. Antenne stouter ; sculpture coarser ; scutellum quad- 
Cater we ee Giclees SRO “bh gech Jaime PUNCTORINEADUS 227. 
II, Antenne more slender; sculpture less coarse ; scu- 
tellum oblong. 
i. Elytra shorter, more narrowed towards apex in 
male; average size smaller . . . . . . . . M. RUFIPES, Herbst. 
ii. Elytra longer, less narrowed towards apex in male ; 
average sizedarger 29609. <5 7 eG) 3.  S  MaicAsmANIPES; -Payk. 
* Mr. Matthews writes to meas follows concerning this specimen :—‘‘ One day when 
I was in London, Turner told me that he had seen a man employed in cutting up 
wood in Hyde Park, who had what he called ‘a big brown snap,’ but that it had 
been crushed flat by the wood; I told him to get it and bring it to me, which he did 
on the following day ; it was crushed as flat as a shilling, and wrapped up in part of 
au old letter; I soaked it in water for some time, and then stuffed it with cotton and 
restored it to shape, and it is now a very good specimen,” 
