48 HETEROMERA. 



O. bipunctata, F. (prceusta, 01.; $ davipes, 01.). Elongate, de- 

 pressed, clothed with close greyish pubescence ; male greyish-black 

 with the front of head, borders of the thorax and a longitudinal line on 

 the latter of varying width, and sometimes absent, yellowish-red ; the 

 elytra are also sometimes narrowly yellowish-red at margins; female 

 with the thorax red, with the margins yellowish, and with two spots of 

 varying size, rarely absent, on disc ; elytra brownish-red, sometimes with 

 the apex, and rarely with the external margins, black ; head finely 

 punctured, antennae long and slender, dark with the base yellow; thorax 

 almost transverse-oval, all the angles being rounded, closely and finely 

 punctured ; scutellum triangular ; elytra at base a little broader than 

 thorax, subparallel, and more coarsely punctured than thorax ; legs red- 

 dish-testaceous, with the apex of the femora, and more or less of the 

 tibiae, and the tarsi, black. L. 5-10 mm. 



Male with the posterior femora moie or less strongly thickened or 

 simple ; female with the posterior femora always simple ; the colour of 

 the sexes is variable in some instances. 



On the flowers of the white-thorn ; rare ; Monks Wood, Cambridge, where most of 

 the British specimens have been taken ; Windsor; Weston-on-the-Green, Oxon, May 

 1830 (Matthews); Scarborough (G. A. Wright); according to Curtis they stick so 

 fast to the bustu-s that they are detached with great difficulty, and this may partly be 

 the reason of their being so seldom seen. 



PYTHIDJE. 



This is a small family, containing about a dozen genera and fifty or 

 sixty species ; the genus Mycterus is included under tho Pythidae by 

 some authors, and by others under the Melandryidse or (Edemeridae ; if 

 we include it under the Pythidse, the family is represented in Europe 

 by six genera and twenty-five species, of which four genera and ten 

 species occur in Britain ; the majority of the species appear to occur in 

 Europe and North America; a few, however, are found in Chili, New 

 Guinea, Tasmania, &c. The following are the chief characteristics of the 

 family : Head prominent, free, eyes entire, maxillae with flattened 

 ciliate lobes, maxillary palpi moderate; antennae 11-jointed, filiform or 

 slightly thickened towards apex ; thorax narrowed at base, with the 

 sides not margined ; anterior coxae more or less conical, usually conti- 

 guous ; mesosternum moderately long ; elytra rounded at apex, covering 

 abdomen ; legs moderate, tibiae slender with the spurs small but distinct, 

 claws simple ; abdomen with five free ventral segments ; the species vary 

 very much in size and shape. 



The following two tribes may be thus distinguished : 



I. Intermediate coxae with trochantin; side pieces of mesosternum 

 reaching the intermediate coxae ; form large, much depressed . . PYTHINA. 



II. Intermediate coxae without trochautiu ; side pieces of 

 mesosternum not reaching the intermediate coxae; form smaller, 

 more or less convex. 



