68 Mr. F. Y\. Edwards on the 



and tlie more noticeable enlargement of the tip of the 

 hind tibia? in the ^ . In the typical E. quinquevittaius 

 the thorax is not conspicuously striped at all. — E. E. 

 Austen, 22. xii. 04." 



To this Mr. C. S. Banks (of the Bureau of Science, 

 Manila), who visited the ]\[useum some three years ago, added 

 tiie i'ollowing : — 



" I quite agree with Mr. Austen regarding the ab- 

 sence of special (quinquevitt?e) markings in the c^ or 

 ? type of E. quinquevittata and believe that Theobald 

 must have mixed his specimens after describing and 

 before labelling them. C. S. Banks. 9. ix. 08." 



On the suggestion of Mr. G. A. K. Marshall I have gone 

 carefully into the matter, examining critically every specimen 

 of the genus (seventy-three altogether) in the British 

 Museum. As a result I have come to a somewhat different 

 conclusion from that of Banks. Tiie results of my examina- 

 tion may be set forth as follows : — 



(1) Theobald's description of E. quinquevittaius applies to 

 the male of one species and the female of another. 



(2) The insect described by Theobald as E. quinque- 

 vittatus ? was redescribed by him, together with its true ^ , 

 as E. austenii. 



(3) The insect Theobald described as E. quinquevittaius S 

 was redescribed by Graham, together w-ith its true ? , as 

 E.. chrysoc] aster. 



Were this all, the riddle would be comparatively simple. 

 But the female insect labelled *' E. quinquevittaius type " IS 

 of the same species as the male type, and agrees with the 

 description of chrysogaster^ but not of quinquevittaius. Thus 

 Banks's conclusion was in the main correct. It looks as 

 though Theobald drew up his first description before he 

 recognized that he had two species before him, and so was 

 not sufficiently- careful in choosing his types. The best 

 course seems to me to be to ignore the type label and follow 

 the description, in which case the two species will have to be 

 known as quinquevittaius (with a striped thorax and simple 

 hind tarsi in the male) and chrysogasler (with unstriped 

 thorax and feathered hind tarsi in the male). 



A scrutiny of the series of E. melanopous^ ^ Graliani, showed 

 that here also two species, if not three, had been confused. 



* I have not felt myself justified in Latinizing the spelling of 

 Dr. Graham's names. 



