Mr. A. Murray's Monograph of the genus Catops. 145 



the outward curve connnences : the posterior margin is almost 

 straight, only a Uttle sinuate towards the middle. The elytra 

 are covered xvith a brownish-blue or purplish bloom, and with 

 some yellow pubescence most observable at the base and along the 

 basal margins*. Under the bloom the elytra themselves are 

 brownish, lightest at the base ; they are densely punctate, with 

 feeble traces of stri?c, in the middle somewhat expanded, behind 

 oval-acuminate. Under side and thighs dark brown, tibiae fer- 

 ruginous brown, tarsi ferruginous yellow. 



Erichson adds that in the males the extreme termination of 

 each elytron is produced into a single Fig. ig. 



point. In the females the point is com- 

 monly rounded. My experience is that 

 it varies indifferently. 



This is a variable species, and under it, 

 I think, should be comprehended not only the C. abdominalis of 

 Rosenhauer, the longulus of Kellner, and the montivagus of Heer, 

 but also the grandicollis of Erichson, and probably the rotundi- 

 collis of Kellner. These I shall include as varieties under this 

 species, giving however a separate description of each, and where 

 I have not seen the variety in nature, quoting the words of the 

 author who described it. 



Var. A. C. abdominalis, Rosenh. Beitr. Ins. Fn. Eur. i. p. 22. 

 " Obion go-ovatus, niger ; antennarum basi, abdomiuisque seg- 



mentis 2 primis ferrugineis ; prothorace basi apiceque latitu- 



dine aquali, angulis posticis rectis ; elytris obsoletissime stri- 



atis, antennis abruptc clavatis. 

 "Long. If lin., lat. 1 lin. 



" Very similar to the C. nigricans, but smaller and not so 

 convex ; particularly like the C. montivagus, Heer, Fn. Helv, i. 

 381. I should consider it perhaps to belong to the latter, were 

 it not that the posterior part of the abdomen of two examples 

 which I possess from difterent districts of the Tyrol is uniformly 

 of a different colour from that of the rest, a character which is 

 not known to me in any other Catops, and which Heer must cer- 

 tainly have observed in describing his species had it existed in 

 it. In the new species also the coloui- of the base of the an- 

 tennre and of the feet is much darker and the thorax is broader. 



* It is jieihaps scarcely necessary to say, that in speaking of the bloom 

 and the pubescence on these species, I am sjieaking of perfectly fresh sjjcci- 

 mens in good condition. When the insect gets greasy and dirty the bloom no 

 longer exists, and tlie yellow hairs get clogged together so that they look 

 black. The best way in such cases is to turn them about in different direc- 

 tions, till the eye catches the light in which the pubescence or bloom best 

 shows itself. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol xviii. 10 



