Validity of Pissodes validirostris as a Species. 67 



Eegarding these distinctions, I may say that " size " must 

 go for nothing. I have both collected and bred specimens of 

 notatus smaller than any I have seen of validirostris. 



Coloration must also go as a distinction, for, apart from 

 other colour variations which I have often found in notatus, 

 notatus specimens have been procured with the suture of the 

 elytra white-flecked. Practically, then, the main factor relied 

 on by the systeniatist for distinction is the shape of the 

 corners of the prothorax. 



Where the morphological characters were so difficult to 

 differentiate, it has always been a satisfaction to fall back 

 on the biology, notatus being the form that bred in pine 

 stems, and validirostris the form which bred in cones. 



Yet there was no certainty, and the doubts were given 

 expression to in Nitsche's recent great work ^ as follows : — 

 " Fraglich erscheint es doch noch, ob dieser Zapfenbewohner 

 nicht wenigstens oftmals P. notatus (Fabr.) ist. Die Bestim- 

 mung nahe verwandter arten dieser Gattung ist wegen dev 

 Veranderlichkeit derselben bezliglich der feinen Unterschiede 

 in der Gestalt das Halsschildes, in der Skulptur und Bes- 

 chuppung der Flugeldecken ausserst schwierig und unsicher. 

 Die endgilti^e Entscheidunc^ muss erst weiteren Unter- 

 suchungen vorbehalten bleiben." 



Having material during the summer of last year, I started 

 an experiment which had for its object the proving, if 

 possible, that P. notatus would breed in pine cones, and if so, 

 the consequent possibility that notatus and validirostris are 

 one and the same. 



On 5th June 1897 I made an excursion to Longniddry, 

 and collected some fresh pine (Pinus sylvestris) cones. The 

 cones, which were perfectly free from injury of any kind, 

 were about a year old. They had been pollinated in 1896, 

 and would normally have shed their seed at the end of 1897. 



Metliod of Experiment. — Knowing that notatus took between 

 three and four months for its development, my difficulty was 

 to prevent the cones from becoming so hard and dry as to 

 render them unsuitable for breeding purposes. After several 



1 " Mitteleuropaischen Forstinsektenkunde," vol. ii. p. 401. 



