310 PHYTOPHAGA. [ Melasoma. 
antenne, legs and scutellum black, slightly metallic; head depressed on 
vertex, antenne short, thickened towards apex ; thorax much narrower 
than elytra, small, strongly emarginite in front with the anterior angles 
obtusely projecting, disc very finely punctured, almost smooth, some- 
times with traces of a central channel, sides broadly raised, coarsely 
punctured; elytra ample, less shining than thorax, closely, irregularly 
and not strongly punctured, with shoulders slightly callose; the thorax 
is usually greenish, but sometimes bluish or even black. L. 9-11 mm. 
Male with the tarsi moderately dilated, and the last ventral segment 
short. 
On young poplars ard sallows; local, but not uncommon where it occurs ; 
Mickleham, Wimbledon, Caterham, Woking; Folkestone; Dover; Hastings; Glan- 
villes Wootton ; New Forest ; Swansea; Ely ; Cambridge; Wicken Fen; Whittlesea ; 
York; Scotland, rare, Tweed and Forth districts. 
IM. longicolle, Suffr. (tremula, Steph.). Very like the preceding in 
colour and general appearance, but smaller and much narrower and more 
oblong, with the thorax longer and its disc finely but evidently punctured, 
and the lateral fold caused by the raised margin deeper; the head is 
scarcely channelled, and the elytra are more strongly punctured and have 
no black spot at apex near suture; the last joint of the tarsi also, which 
is simple in M. populi, is produced into a tooth on each side at apex as 
in eneum ; in the male the last ventral segment is short. L. 73-9 mm. 
On sallows and aspens, in woods; very local; Blackheath, Darenth Wood, Cater- 
ham, Highgate, Farnham, Colney Hatch, Muswell Hill, &c.; Dover; St. 
Leonards; New Forest; Swansea ; Cambridge ; Monks Wood ; Knowle; Edgbaston ; 
Trench Woods; Sr. Osyth, Colchester; Langworth Wood, Lincoln, common in 
July ; I know of no locality further north. 
Weise (l.c., p. 564) regards M. longicolle as a synonym of M. tremule, 
and adds “var. a. elytris apice suture puncto infuscato ;” this variety has 
usually been regarded as the true M. tremule, which has been sometimes 
included in the British lists; it appears, however, to differ so little 
from M. longicolle that Weise is probably right in regarding the two 
species as identical. 
PHYTODECTA, Kirby. (Gonioctena, Redt.) 
The species belonging to this genus may be known by having the 
claws armed with a sharp dentiform appendage reaching beyond middle, 
and the tibia produced externally in a sharp tooth at apex; they are of 
oval form and not metallic, with the thorax transverse and the elytra 
punctured in rows; the first and third joints of the tarsi are broader 
than the second; the males are smaller and more parallel than the 
females, and have the tarsi broader; the larve are elongate, rather dull, 
and moderately convex, of a brownish-black colour (as in G’. viminalls), 
or brownish or yellowish; each segment, except that of the prothorax, is 
divided into two equal parts by a well-marked transverse furrow, and 
