Stilbus.] CLAVICORNIA. 155 



margin not visibly sinuate near scutellum, and the posterior angles a 

 little obtuse, and not sharp right angles as in the two preceding species ; 

 elytra with one stria near suture well marked, and with other very fine 

 longitudinal strio3, the interstices being each furnished with a regular 

 row of fine punctures, which are scarcely visible except under a high 

 magnifying power ; under-side brownish, last segment of abdomen and 

 legs reddish, or reddish-yellow ; prosternum without a circle of hairs 

 behind. L. 1^-1 f mm. 



Marshy places j in the stems of Typha latifolia ; local but sometimes common where 

 it occurs; Snodland (Kent), Chatham, Gravesend, Shoppy, Dagenham ; formerly 

 found at Netting Hill ; Birchington and Pegwell Bay ; Hastings ; Horning Fen. 



It is worthy of notice that only four species of Phalacridse are recorded 

 from Scotland, and these are all local or rare in that country. 



COCCINELLIDjE. 



Of all the families of the Coleoptera there is hardly any which is at 

 present in a more unsatisfactory state as regards classification than the 

 Coccinellidae ; many of the recognized genera rest on what appear to be 

 purely specific differences, and these not always very strong ones ; a great 

 deal of labour has been spent upon the family by Crotch, Mulsant, and 

 others, and lately Herr Weise in the " Bestimmungs-Tabellen der Euro- 

 paischen Coleoptera " has given us a most useful monograph of the 

 European species ; a complete and thorough revision, however, of all the 

 exotic genera is needed before we can at all attain to a correct idea of 

 the group. Mr. Gorham is at present studying the family and collecting 

 materials, but the genera and species are so numerous that we can hardly 

 expect such a work from one who is so much occupied with other groups. 

 According to the Munich catalogue the family contains 1450 species 

 belonging to 104 genera ; since the publication of the catalogue the 

 increase may be roughly estimated at about ten per cent. ; of these only 

 about fifty species belonging to fifteen or sixteen genera occur in Britain. 

 With regard to the general distribution of the Coccinellidse Mr. Gorham 

 writes to me as follows : " The distribution is very remarkable and 

 different to either of the two groups just mentioned (EndomycLidse and 

 Erotylidae), being, if I may call it so, more universal, every known part 

 of the globe which supports any insect life having, as far as I can speak, 

 an average number; the genera are very badly defined; hence my ideas 

 of geographical genera seem quite upset ; Halyzia, for instance, has 

 representatives in Europe, North and South America, China, Japan, 

 India, Africa, Australia, and the Pacific Islands ; or if again we take the 

 large genus Epilachna (containing 223 species), although it has an 

 Eastern and a New World type very different in appearance, yet these 

 cannot be separated generically without the process (which must at last 

 take place) of subdivision into many genera, as there are contingents from 



