306 Capt. F. Balfour-Browne on 
species, but, as further investigations must be postponed 
indefinitely in these moving times, I have thought it well to 
put on record the existence of this additional species in the 
British beetle fauna, together with the notes I have made up 
to date. 
Summary. 
There are apparently two species included by British 
authors under the name Deronectes depressus. One of these 
I regard as LD. depressus of Fabricius and the other as 
D. elegans of Panzer. 
The characters upon which these species may be separated 
are i— 
1. The shape of the thorax in g and ?. By itself this is 
of little value, especially in the 9, and in the latter 
sex there is, unfortunately, no other means of separating 
the species except by size, which, of course, is equally 
unreliable. 
2. The anterior tarsal claws of the g, a character which, 
in conjunction with the shape of the thorax, makes 
the separation of the species easy in most cases. 
3. The breadth of apex of the wdeagus. » This varies in 
both species, and the variation is such that the 
narrowest edeagus of LD). depressus and the broadest 
of D. elegans are almost alike. 
This discovery of a complete series from broad- to narrow- 
apexed eedeagus (vide text-figures) made me doubtful as to 
the specific distinctness of the two forms, but, having regard 
to the fact that the two species do not occur together, that the 
distribution of depressus in the district examined is limited to 
eleven out of thirty-two lochs and that these eleven loclis are 
scattered about in the district, [ continue for the present to 
regard the two as good species very closely related to one 
another. 
A short historical review of the two species is given, anda 
bibliography of the more important works referring to them. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
1. Ausk, C. (& Desean). 1836. Iconographie et Hist. Nat. des Col. 
d’Europe, Vv. pp. 228, 229. [elegans a synonym. | 
2, ——. 1838. Species général des Hydrocanthares et Gyriniens, 
pp. 506, 507, [elegans a synonym. |] 
3,——. 1863. Cat, des Coléoptéres de France, p. 11. [elegans, Il., 
a synonym. | 
