80 Mr. T. V. Wollaston's Revision of 



from the A. analis. It is pretty generally distributed throughout 

 the country : I have taken it at Bridlington, in Yorkshire ; at 

 Spridlington and Cainby, in Lincolnshire; at Whittlesea Mere, in 

 Huntingdonshire ; at Cransley, in Northamptonshire ; at Plump- 

 stead, in Kent ; at Basset Down, in Wilts ; at Withington, in 

 Gloucestershire ; at Weston-super-Mare, in Somerset ; and at 

 Chepstow, in Monmouth. It has also been captured by Mr. Water- 

 house near Brighton, at Gosport, and near London ; by Mr. 

 Douglas, at Darenth W^ood and Lee, in Kent ; and by Mr. Mur- 

 ray and Mr. Morris Young, in Scotland. 



It is the A. lermmata of the Continent ; but, as that name was 

 not published until 1837, and our present insect is the undoubted 

 Silpha ruficornis of the " Entomologia Britannica" (as is proved by 

 the existence of the original example, with a label attached to it, 

 in the Stephensian cabinet), it is evident that the Marshamian 

 title has the priority, and must therefore be adopted. 



The Ujpe of the A. dorsalis of Stephens (though mixed up, in 

 his collection, with an example of the apicalis, and another of the 

 analis) is, likewise, the continental A. terminala : hence, both of 

 these names (^dorsalis and ierminata) must be suppressed in favour 

 of the Marshamian one of rufico7 nis. 



Sp. 23. Atomaria versicolor. 

 Alomaria alra (p.), Steph., 111. Brit. Ent. iii. p. 67 (1S30). 



versicolor, Erich., Nat. der Ins. Deuts. iii. p. 399 (1848). 



turgida, Murray (nee Erich.), Cat. Col. Scot. p. 42 (18.53). 



In its distinctly punctured surface, the A. versicolor approaches 

 the apicalis. It is, however, on the average, somewhat larger, 

 and much less ovate, than that insect ; it is also brighter, and less 

 pubescent, and its prothorax is more rounded at the sides. In the 

 peculiarity of its colouring moreover, which is of a rich rufo- 

 piceous tint, with the shoulders and apical region of the elytra 

 more or less clearly rufescent, it recedes from most of its allies. 

 It is one of the scarcer species ; and it is remarkable that, out of 

 the 1,137 British specimens of the genus which I have examined, 

 there are, with the exception of my own series, but four examples 

 of the A. versicolor : one of these is in tlie Stephensian cabinet 

 (where it is mixed up with five individuals of the analis, which are 

 made to represent the A. atra), and the other three were taken 

 by Mr. Morris Young in Renfrewshire, — being the actual ex- 

 amples registered by Mr. Murray as the A. turgida (which, how- 

 ever, is a totally different insect), in his catalogue of the Coleoptera 

 of Scotland. I have myself met with it in considerable abundance 

 at Withington, on the Cotswold Hills of Gloucestershire (prin- 



