446 Rev. A. .Mattliews on Dr. C. Finch's 



decline to be considered responsible for mistakes made bj 

 other people. But tlie expression " ex tjp." may account 

 for many of the errors of nomenclature contained in this list. 

 I have myself suffered from the careless manner in which 

 specimens are often named and then distributed as types of 

 certain species ; and the same misfortune may have, and 

 probably has, happened to Dr. Flach. P. Bruckii is con- 

 spicuously distinct from all its congeners. P. targidam I 

 described from a type I received from M. Thomson ; it is 

 allied to P. forviicetorum alone. In his next subgenus 

 Dr. Flach has placed P. intermedium^ Wank. ; but this is so 

 closely allied to P. evanescens^ Marsh., that it seems strange 

 to have placed them so widely apart. 



Of the ten species contained in his subgenus Ptenidiiun 

 four are introduced by Dr. Flach himself, and are all unknown 

 to me ; but throughout the Ptenidia it would be difficult to 

 find among the older species five more totally dissimilar 

 than those which he has grouped together in this division, 

 namely, P.fuacicorne^ formicetorum, evanescens, Brisouti, and 

 jHinctatum. In his last subgenus, Gilhneislerium, Dr. Flach 

 has placed but two species, P. mcidum and P. lieitteri; the 

 synonymy assigned to the former of these is, as far as I can 

 judge, correct, with the exception of P. Icevigatum, Gilhn. 

 I need not repeat again what I have said only a few linea 

 above respecting this species, but, should any doubt exist, 

 must refer its solution to the description and figure given by 

 Ciillmeister himself or to those in the ' Trichopterygia Illus- 

 trata." 



The genus Euryptilium is placed next in succession, and in 

 this genus Dr. Flach has included Ptiliiim marginatum^ Aub(5. 

 It seems to me that Dr. Flach is right in adding this species 

 to Euryptilium^ for the apex of the elytra is entire and its 

 whole form and sculi)ture very similar. 



Among the Ptilia the subdivisions and the combination of 

 species become more numerous and still more pcri)lexing. In 

 his first subgenus Dr. Flach places P. Kunzei alone, but 

 amalgamates under that name P. hrevicoUe, whose thorax is 

 one half shorter, and P. 7'ugulosum, which has long and 

 slender antennas and exhibits striking difierences in outline 

 and sculpture. The next subgenus, Trichoptilium, contains 

 but one species, T. Sahlhergi. The figure of this insect 

 (pi. xi. fig. 3) clearly proves that it cannot possibly be 

 included in any part of the genus Ptilhim, since its thorax 

 overlaps the shoulders of the elytra, a formation hitherto only 

 found in Actidium and Microptilium. Then follows the 

 subgenus 'JgpJiIopiilium, contiduux'^ 1\ a'dipus ixud two others 



