28 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Coleoptera of St. Helena. 



Fara. 22. Cassididae. 



Genus 40. Aspidomorpha. 



Hope, Col. Man. (1840). 



63. Aspidomorpha miliaris. 



A. " flava, thorace immaculate, elytris nigro punctatis : margine 

 bifasciato. Habitat in ins. St. Helence. Mus. Dom. Banks. 

 Statura C. marginatce. Antennae flavae, apice nigras. Thoracis 

 clypens rotundatus, integer, immaculatus. Elytra laevia, flava, 

 punctis circiter 10 nigris sparsis. Margo uti in reliquis dilatatus 

 fasciis duabus, altera ad basin, altera versus apicem, nigris. Su- 

 tura apice nigra. Subtus nigra, margine flavescente. Pedes 

 flavi." [Ex Fabrkio.] 



Casstda miliaris, Fab., Syst. Ent. 91 (1775). 



, Oliv., Encvcl. Meth. v. 38o (1791). 



, Id., Ent. vi. 943. ,33, t. 2. f. 25 (1808). 



, Fab., Ent. Syst. i. 800 (1792). 



, Id., Syst. Eleuth. i. 400 (1801). 



Aspidomorjyha mUians?^ Boliem., Mon. Cass. ii. 2G1 (1854). 



I know nothing of the present insect beyond the mere fact 

 of the ahove quotation from Fabricius ; but as the species is 

 stated plainly to have come from St. Helena, and to be in the 

 Banksian collection, I can see no reason for doubting its ha- 

 bitat, particularly since other Coleoptera belonging to the late 

 Sir Joseph Banks were imquestionably (as in the case of the 

 Cydonia lunata) received from the same island. I therefore 

 conclude that there is some member of the Cassididw to be 



to have discovered that the insect was a Chjthra, and cited it accordingly, 

 though whether this conclusion was arrived at after a re-examination of 

 the original St.-IIelena example, or merely of those from southern Europe, 

 it is impossible now to tell ; but in any case it is quite clear that his hrst 

 description applied to the St.-Helena one, and not to that from Italy. 

 Having thus, however, altered his diagnosis so as to make it tally with 

 the Italian species, he appears to have lost sight of the original St.-llelena 

 type altogether ; for in the S_vst. Eleuth. (ii. 38) he still refers to his former 

 volumes, but records southern Europe as the onhf habitat for his '^Cli/thra 

 rujicollis," omitting even a passing allusion to St. Helena !! After this 

 admission of his own, it is not sm-prising that European naturalists should 

 have accepted, on his authority, the name of rujieollis (although applied 

 at first to a St.-Helena species) for the MediteiTanean insect ; and accord- 

 ingly every subsequent writer, including even Lacordaire (Mon. des Phy- 

 toph. ii. 100), has so done ; and yet it seems to me to be more than 

 doubtful whether the well-known Chjthra (or Macrolenes) rvjicollis of 

 southern Europe is in reality identical with Fabricius 's original " Cryptv- 

 cephahis rujieollis" (despite his own subsequent representation) from St. 

 Helena. If it should prove idtimately that the two are different, it fol- 

 lows of necessity that the title " rujieollis " (wliatsoever the (lemts may 

 be) will have to apply to the insect from that islaud, and that the Euro- 

 pean one must receive a new name. 



