306 Capt. F. Balfour-Biowne on 



species, l)iit, as further investigations must be postponed 

 indefinitely in these moving times, I have thouglit 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. 



Summart/, 



There are apparently two species included by British 

 authors under tlie name Deronectes depreasus. Ona of these 

 I regard as JJ. depressus of Fabricius and the other as 

 D. elegans of Panzer. 



The characters upon which these species may be separated 

 are : — 



1. The shape of the thorax in ^ and ? . By itself this is 



of little value, especially in the ? , and in tlie 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 J", a character whicli, 



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 sedeagus. This varies in 



both species, and the variation is such that the 

 narrowest aideagus of D. depressus and the broadest 

 of D. elegans are almost alike. 



This discovery of a complete series from broad- to narrow- 

 apexed asdeagus {vide text-tigures) 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 depresses in the district examined is limited to 

 eleven out of thirt^'-two lochs and that these eleven lochs are 

 scattered about in the district, I 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, aiid a 

 bibliography of the more important works referring to them. 



Bibliography. 



1. AuBE, C. (& Dejean). 1836. Iconograpliie et Hiet. Nat. des Col. 



d'Europe, v. pp. 228, 229. [elegans a synonym.] 



2. . 1838. Species g6n(5ral des Hydrocanthares et Gyriniens, 



pp. 506, 507. [elegans a synonym.] 



3. . 1863. Cat. des Col^opleres do I ranee, p. 11. [elegans, III., 



a synonym.] 



