Timarcha. | PHYTOPHAGA, 301 
strongly dilated ; female with the first joint of the tarsi furnished 
beneath with a smooth line. 
On grass in lanes and by the side of roads, on commons, heaths, &c.; often crawl- 
ing on pathways ; very common and generally distributed from the midland counties 
southwards, but rarer further north, and not recorded from the northern counties of 
England ; the single Scotch record, ** Kirkcudbrightshire, Murray’s Cat.,’’ is extremely 
doubtful ; it is local in Europe, being chiefly confined to southern and south-central 
districts ; it is not recorded from Scandinavia. Mr. Gorham records it as general in 
the South of England on Galiwm, but I have not observed its preference for this 
plant. 
T. violaceonigra, De G. (coriaria, Laich.). This species is much 
smaller than the preceding, the males being about the size of a large 
Chrysomeia distinguenda ; it may be easily distinguished by having the 
sides of the thorax very slightly and uniformly rounded, and scarcely 
contracted behind, and by the much coarser rugose sculpture of the elytra ; 
the colour is always dark, but is somewhat variable as regards the 
metallic reflection, which is, as a rule, slightly violet, but sometimes 
bluish or greenish ; the sexual characters are as in 7’. tenebricosa. L. 
8-13 mm. 
Heaths and commons ; on grass stems, furze, Galiwm, &c. ; common and generally 
distributed throughout England from the midland counties southwards ; rarer further 
north, and not recorded from the extreme northern counties of England, or from any 
Scotch district except the Orkney Islands; Ireland, near Belfast and Dublin; it has 
a much wider northern range in Europe than the preceding species. 
CHRYSOMELA, Linné. 
The genus Chrysome/a proper contains upwards of four hundred species, 
which are widely distributed in the Old World; about a hundred and 
twenty are found in Europe, and a large number inhabit Northern Asia 
and South Africa; very few appear to be found in the New World ; 
four or five have recently been described from Peru, and a few represen- 
tatives have occurred in North America, Mexico, Chili, Australia, &e. : 
the genus appears to be replaced in North, Central and South America 
by Calligrapha and Zygogramma, which are regarded by Dr. Horn as 
merely sub-genera of Chrysomela, and chiefly differ in having the elytra 
furnished with labyrinthine spots or stripes. 
The species are ovate or short ovate insects, and, as arule, are strongly 
convex ; they vary exceedingly in colour from black or bluish-blaek to 
the most brilliant golden green, purple, red, blue, coppery, &c. ; some of 
the species are among the most beautiful of the Coleoptera ; they differ 
from the closely allied genus Timarcha in having the anterior coxal 
cavities open behind, and in the fact that the posterior femora project 
either slightly, or not at all, beyond the margin of the elytra; the 
mentum is large, and the episterna of the metathorax are elongate tri- 
angular and narrowed towards apex ; the elytra are very variably punc- 
tured, and are finely but distinctly ciliate on their inner posterior margin; 
