THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTOEY. 



[EIGHTH SERIES.] 

 No. 89. MAY 1915. 



XXXVIII. — Notes on the Coleopterous Family Derraestldse, 

 and Descriptions of some new Forms in the British 

 Museum. Bj Gilbert J. Arrow. 



(Publislied by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



The catalogue of tliis family of beetles compiled by Dalla 

 Torre and published in 1911, while of the greatest value as 

 an indispensable preliminary to the systematic study of the 

 group, is necessarily uncritical and in many respects defective 

 from the fact that the compiler lias no intimate knowledge of 

 the insects with which it deals. While studying and arranging 

 with its help the British Museum collection of Dermestida?, 

 I have recorded for the information of future workers the 

 various corrections and omissions which have come under my 

 notice ; and these are published here, together with descrip- 

 tions of some of the new species in the collection which 

 appeared specially worthy of receiving names. 



With an extraordinary degree of variability in the forma- 

 tion of the antennae, and, to a less extent, in other points of 

 structure, these insects have a general similarity which rarely 

 leaves any doubt as to their belonging to the family. The 

 most important and distinctive feature is the existence of a 

 frontal ocellus, which is absent in the genus Dermestes only. 

 This interesting feature is only known in one other family of 

 Coleoptera — the Staphylinidse (subfamily Omaliinse), — for 

 the statements that it is found in the genera Pteroloma and 

 HyleccBtus are quite erroneous. 



Ann, & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 8. Vol. xv. 29 



