Timarcha.] PHTTOPHAOA. 301 



strongly dilated ; female with the first joint of the tarsi furnished 

 beneath with a smooth lino. 



On graf s in lanes and by the side of road*, on commons, heaths, &c. ; often crawl- 

 ing on pathways ; very common and generally distributed from the midland counties 

 southwards, but rsr.-r further north, and not recorded from the northern counties of 

 England ; the single Scotcli record, " Kirkcudbrightshire, Murray's Cat.," is extremely 

 doubtful ; it is local in Europe, being chiefly confined to southern and south-central 

 districts ; it is not recorded from Scandinavia. Mr. Qorham records it us general in 

 the South of England on Galium, but I have not observed its preference for this 

 plant. 



T. violaceonigra, De G. (coriaria, Laich.). This species is much 

 smaller than the preceding, the males being about the size of a large 

 Chrt/sumela distiiiguenda ; it may be easily distinguished by having the 

 sides of the thorax very slightly and uniformly rounded, and scarcely 

 contracted behind, and by the much coarser rugose sculpture of the elytra ; 

 the colour is always dark, but is somewhat variable as regards the 

 metallic reflection, which is, as a rule, slightly violet, but sometimes 

 bluish or greenish ; the sexual characters are as in T. tenebricosa. L. 

 8-13 mm. 



Heaths and commons ; on grass stems, furze, Galium, Ac. ; common and generally 

 distributed throughout Kngland from the midland counties southwards ; rarer further 

 north, and not recorded from the extreme northern counties of England, or from any 

 Scotch district except the Orkney Islands ; Ireland, near Belfast and Dublin ; it has 

 a much wider northern range in Europe than the preceding species. 



CIIRYS01VIELA. Linne. 



The genus Chrysomela proper contains upwards of four hundred species, 

 which are widely distributed in the Old World ; about a hundred and 

 twenty are found in Europe, and a large number inhabit Northern Asia 

 and South Africa ; very few appear to be found in the New World ; 

 four or five have recently been described from Peru, and a few represen- 

 tatives have occurred in North America, Mexico, Chili, Australia, <6c. ; 

 the genus appears to be replaced in North, Central and South America 

 by Calligrapha and Zygoyramma, which arc regarded by Dr. Horn as 

 merely sub-genera of Chrysomeln, and chiefly diifer in having the elytra 

 furnished with labyrinthine spots or stripes. 



The species are ovate or short ovate insects, and, as a rule, are strongly 

 convex ; they vary exceedingly in colour from black or bluish-black to 

 the most brilliant golden green, purple, rod, blue, coppery, &c. ; some of 

 the species are among the most beautiful of the Coleoptera ; they differ 

 from the closely allied genus Timarcha in having the anterior coxal 

 cavities open behind, and in the fact that the posterior femora project 

 cither slightly, or not at all, beyond the margin of the elytra; the 

 mentum is large, and the episterna of the metutliorax are elongate tri- 

 angular and narrowed towards apex ; the elytra are very variably punc- 

 tured, and are finely but distinctly ciliate on'their inner posterior margin ; 



