Abdera."\ HETEROMEBA. 43 



The four British species may be distinguished as follows : 



I. Thorax with the sides margined almost to apex ; 



prevailing colour darker. (Abdera, i. sp.) 

 i. Thorax about as long as broad ; upper surface 

 finely sculptured. 



1. Thorax dark in middle, with the basal and 



apical margins more or less broadly yellow . . A. QUADHIFASCIATA, Steph. 



2. Thorax entirely dark, with the apex sometimes 



obscurely lighter A. BLFASC1ATA, Marsh. 



ii. Thorax transverse ; upper surface rather strongly 



sculptured A. TBIGUTTATA, Oyll. 



II. Thorax with the sides not margined in front j pre- 

 vailing colour lighter (Carida, Muls.) A. FLEXUOSA, Payk. 



A. quadrifasciata, Steph. Elongate, parallel-sided, moderately 

 convex, very closely finely and subrugosely punctured, clothed with 

 silky yellowish pubescence ; head varying from brown to reddish-tes- 

 taceous, labrum yellow, antennse rather long and slender, reaching at all 

 events to base of thorax, dark, with base and apex yellow ; thorax about 

 as long as broad, with the disc dark, and the anterior and posterior 

 margins more or less broadly testaceous ; scutellum transverse ; elytra 

 black with two common waved reddish-yellow bands, under-side reddish 

 or brown ; legs red or yellowish-red. L. 2j-3| mm. 



In decaying hornbeam, also in the short half-rotten stumps left on various trees 

 where boughs have been broken off; occasionally by sweeping ; rare ; Coombe Wood 

 (Rye) ; Cobham Park (Champion) ; Tonbridge (Homer) ; Headley Lane, Esher, on 

 fence (Gorham) ; New Forest ; Shropshire; Dunham Park, Manchester (Chappell). 



A. bifasciata, Marsh, (biflexuosa, Curt.). Closely allied to the 

 preceding, but less convex, and easily distinguished by its colour, which 

 is pitchy black or black, with the base of the antennae yellowish, and 

 the elytra with two fasciae which are narrower and more waved than in 

 A. quadrifasciata; the upper surface is shining and clothed with yel- 

 lowish pubescence ; punctuation very close and fine, subrugose ; legs 

 ferruginous, tarsi lighter at apex. L. 2}-3^ mm. 



Female longer than the male, with the thorax broader in propor- 

 tion. 



In dead boughs of oak and ash trees ; sometimes by beating and sweeping ; rare ; 

 Esher, Wimbledon, Ripley, Forest Hill, Shirley, Ashtead, Cobham, Darentli, Birch 

 Wood, Highgate, Southgate, Wimbledon (Champion, Power and other*) ; New Forest 

 (beaten by myself from a high hedge near Brockenhurst, in July 1877, from which I 

 obtained Apion sorbi, Conopalpus testaceus, &c. ; also taken by Mr. Blatch) ; Glan- 

 villes Wootton; I also have specimens sent me by Dr. Chapman in a box containing 

 beetles taken chiefly, if not entirely, in Herefordshire and Monmouthshire. 



A. trig-uttata, Gyll. A delicate little species which may at once 

 be distinguished from the two preceding by its transverse thorax, which 

 is somewhat constricted in front, and the much stronger sculpture of the 

 upper surface, which is distinct and rugose, and stronger on the elytra 

 than on the thorax ; the pubescence is fine and silky ; the general colour 



