(. ae) 
had been sent to him by Mr. Joseph Chappell, of Manchester, 
who had collected them in that district, and who at the time 
believed them to be a form of Aphodius inquinatus. Mr. Rye 
remarks :—‘* Compared with inguinatus, the majority are con- 
spicuously larger, with more developed limbs, and the ground 
colour of a darker testaceous colour, the sides of the thorax 
entirely reddish testaceous, and the black streak in the second 
interstice of the elytra reaching farther towards the middle. 
In all but one of my specimens, also, the black line connected 
with this streak is carried towards the apex and connected in 
the lower third with the lateral black line, which is not the 
case in any of my varieties of inquinatus.”’ 
Aphodius inquinatus is a very abundant insect on the coast 
sandhills of Lancashire and Cheshire, and I had for some 
time in my collection two specimens which I referred to its 
var. centrolineatus, Panz., but on sending one of these to the 
Rev. Canon Fowler he informed me that the specimen was 
one of dA. melanostictus. Although my remaining specimen 
agreed with the description given above by Rye, I could. 
find no structural difference between it and inquinatus, and 
I have had it in my cabinet as melanostictus only under 
protest. 
I have recently had an opportunity of examining Mr. 
Chappell’s specimens of A. melanostictus, and have carefully 
compared them not only with the description of that and 
allied species of Aphodius in Mulsant and Rey’s ‘ Coleoptéres 
de France,’ but also with undoubted specimens of 4. melano- 
stictus obtained from Herr Reitter, of Vienna. 
There is a great general resemblance between the two 
species, and though Rye italicises the remark that in melano- 
stictus the sides of the thorax are entirely reddish testaceous, 
which is the case in typical specimens (except that there is a 
distinct black spot in the centre of the side, as in our 4. sordidus), 
yet, since I have specimens of this species which have the 
sides of the thorax obscure, and also specimens of inguinatus 
which have the whole side of the thorax bright testaceous- 
red, this character cannot be considered as of any value for 
diagnosis. 
If we compare specimens of 4. melanostictus with ordinary 
