British Species of RaViphi^. 101 



The Pu.nx'turation of the Elytra in the Female. 

 _ Apparently Gerliardt was the first to discover differences 

 m the extent to which the elytra of the females of tlis 

 different species are covered with a very fine puncfuration 

 and he mentions that in i7. ruficollis the apical liulf of the' 

 elytra is thus punctured*. Now Edwards found that in 

 //. ruficollis tiie elytra are entirely punctate and consequently 

 assumed that Gerhardt, Wehncke, and others were wrono-. 

 l^edel (2) had already said that he could find " outres les 

 trois types separc's par M. Gerhardt, toutes les nuances de 

 transition dans la forme generale, la coloration fonciere, 

 le dessin des elytres et la force de la ponctuation," bub 

 Edwards assumed that he also was wrong. 



After examining large numbers of specimens I have 

 satisfied myself that, although in the majority of females of 

 -Biitisii and Irish ruficollis the elytra are completely punctate 

 as desciibed by Edwards, specimens occur in which, at the 

 base, they are impunctate, even under high magnification 

 (x 172), and I have seen a few specimens in which the 

 puncturation is even more reduced and confined to the 

 extreme apex. Of the French specimens sent me by 

 Captain Ste. Claire Deville, almost all were impunctate on 

 the basal half of the elytra. The Dutch specimens sent me 

 by Dr. Everts were more like our own, but semipunctate 

 ones vvere not scarce, while none of the specimens sent me 

 from Austria by the late Herr Ganglbauer or by llerr Reitter 

 werecompletely punctate and a few were identical in punc- 

 turation with those referred to by Edwards as IL fulvicoWs. 



Jioth Ganglbauer and Reitter sent me as II. ruficollis 

 female specimens which were quite impunctate, and in such 

 cases but for their larger size, I am unable to say why thev 

 should not be described as H. heydeni, as I can fi'nd no 

 reliable distinctive ciiaracter between the females of these 

 two species ! In one or two of these impunctate " ruficollis " 



* Edwards finds feult with Newbery (14) for describing the elytra 

 as ah.taceous and sa^'s " the latter term, which I understand to 

 express the condition found on the interspaces of tlie tliorax of certain 

 species of Luccobms, i. e. covered with minute cracks like mud or 

 mosaic . . ^0 species of Laccohms with which I am acquainted 

 has the thorax covered with "minute cracks." In L. alutaceus, for 



n ,i r.';^;,l T"; f '''^/''^ ^T^ extremely fine and close puncturation 



qui e similar to tha found on the elytra of the females of most of the 

 JIahph l^he^^■olx\ alutaceous " may apparently mean either "the 

 colour of buft leather "or '' leathery, coriaceous," so that Thomson pre- 

 sumably misapplied it m naming L. alutaceus, using it in the same sense 

 as it was afterwards used by Bedel and Newbery. 



