240 GLAVICORNIA. [Pria. 



PRXA, Kirby. 



This genus at first siglit closely resembles Meliffethes, but is dis- 

 tinguished by the oblong club of its antennae, by the thorax having a 

 lateral stria close to the margin, and by the simple front tibiie ; it 

 contains about half-a-dozen species, two of which are found in Europe, 

 and the others have been described from South Africa and Madagascar, 

 India and Japan ; the single British species is very widely distributed 

 in Europe from England to the Caucasus district. 



P. dulcamarae, Scop, (hreviuseula, Kol.). Moderately convex, 

 of a dark olive-testaceous colour, with suture of elytra, scutellura, and 

 the greater part of the under-side darker ; upper surface rather thickly 

 clothed with fine and short greyish pubescence ; punctuation of thorax 

 fine, of elytra almost invisible ; posterior angles of thorax right angles ; 

 legs yellow, anterior tibia3 simple ; under a high power, however, slight 

 traces of teeth are visible on the anterior tibia3, and the posterior pairs 

 are seen to be clothed with very short hairs on their margins ; antennae 

 yellowish with club darker • iir the male they are rather longer than in 

 the female, and the eighth joint in the former sex is enlarged laterally, 

 so that the club appears to be 4-jointed in the male, and 3-jointed in 

 the female ; Stephens, deceived by this, considered them to belong to 

 separate genera, the female being his Meligethes dulcamarce, and the 

 male his Prla ti^unccdella. L. 2 mm. 



On flowers of Solanum dulcamara; very local; London district rather corainou 

 and generally distributed ; Eastbourne ; Hastings ; Brixham, Devon ; Salford Prior!=, 

 Evesbam j Bewdley ; Kuowle, near Birmingham ; I know of no record from further 

 north. 



SKESIiIGSTKBS, Kirb}'. 



In the Munich catalogue one hundred and nineteen species are 

 enumerated as belonging to this genus ; so mariy European species have, 

 however, been since described by Keitter, Brisout, &c., that the number 

 found in Europe alone is now about one hundred and ten, and itpwards 

 of two hundred have been in all discovered ; these are almost entirely 

 confined to temperate and cold climates ; very few occur in tropical 

 countries ; a small nimiber have been found in South Africa, and one 

 or two are known from Ceylon, Persia, Madeira, &c. ; thirty-four species 

 occur in Britain, many of which at first sight closely resemble one 

 another, so much so that the genus is often regarded as one of the most 

 difficult in our fauna ; the punctuation, however, and general scidpture, 

 and especially the denticulation of the anterior tibia3 afi'ord such good 

 characters for tliC determination of species in so many cases, that they 

 are really easier to separate than many belonging to genera of much less 

 extent ; a high magnifying power^ however, is necessary, and in some 

 cases the difterenccs are so comparative that the species cannot be 



