( c ) 



"July 3, 1915. 

 " This week I added a small lot of Decatoma pairs taken 

 in coitu. I am sorry the pairs are not so interesting as they 

 might be, and as they ought to be, but Nos. 11 [hermannioides 

 S x var. lambomi $, June 23, 1915, in table on p. cii, and 

 Plate B. fig. 10,] and 25 [F in table on p. cv, and on Plate B] 

 are, I think, promising. . . . The Decatoma beetles have ap- 

 peared in hundreds on our ground-nut (Arachis) plots. On 

 two acres of this crop I had two boys collecting. They each 

 gathered about 300 per day for several days and the beetles 

 are still very numerous. The var. caltemauti [see above] is the 

 most uncommon. The most common are those with three 

 more or less complete yellow bars. The large two yellow 

 barred forms are next in point of numbers. 



"February 26, 1916. 



" I forgot to mention that the ' Decatomas ' were nearly 

 all actually found in coitu (that is, those I definitely sent as 

 pairs) by myself. Some few were found by my clerk, but if 

 coitus had ceased by the time he brought them to me — even 

 though he is quite reliable — I rejected them. As a rule, 

 however, they remain in coitu for quite a long time, even 

 when being carried about. Next tour also I'll do my best to 

 get a big series. The complexity shown in their identity is 

 extraordinary." 



Mr. W. A. Lamborn had also sent a number of these beetles 

 from the same locality to the British Museum and also to 

 the Hope Department. Concerning a series of 8 Coryna 

 hermanniae, F., taken June 13, 1913, he had noted : — 



" These Coleoptera feed on the anthers of cotton. This 

 appears to be a favourite food, for 3 or 4 are often found in 

 one corolla, but they are frequently found eating grass seed 

 and the young leaves and shoots of a variety of other wild 

 plants." 



For an undated example of Decatoma affinis, 01., in the 

 British Museum, Mr. Lamborn had written a note that these 

 beetles " feed on anthers of cotton and on grass seeds." 



The Mylabrid beetles sent by Mr. Lamborn and Mr. Far- 

 quharson had been carefully studied by Mr. K. G. Blair in the 



