Mydeni*.] H:*TEROMERA. 57 



elytra plainly broader at shoulders than base of thorax, subparallel, 

 gradually narrowed a little before apex, coarsely sculptured ; legs slender, 

 pitchy black, apex of tibiae furnished with two short spurs ; under-side 

 clothed with thick silvery pubescence, especially on abdomen. L. 67 

 mm. (excluding rostrum). 



Female with the abdomen more convex than in the male, and the 

 antennae shorter and a little more thickened towards apex. 



On Carduaeeae and Umbt llifera? ; very rare and donbtfnily indigenous ; Stephens' 

 record is, " Extremely rare in Britain. I possess a pair that were captured near 

 Kingsbridge by the late Mr. Cranch; others are in the collection of the British 

 Museum, taken at the same time, in June 1815." Mr. Bye (British Beetles, 

 p. 172) records it as once taken in England by Mr. T. V. Wollaston, but gives no 

 locality ; there is, or was, a specimen in Mr. Crotch's collection, which, perhaps, is 

 the one referred to by Mr. Rye. 



The records are so doubtful that I had omitted the species from this 

 work, until I received a specimen which Mr. Sidney Oiliff kindly sent 

 me with a note to the following effect : " It was, I believe, captured in 

 the vicinity of Oxford in 1882, or thereabouts ; the specimen was in a 

 small collection of Oxford beetles given me by Mr. M. Gunning ; un- 

 fortunately, Mr. Gunning, who was unacquainted with the rarity of his 

 capture, had no recollection of the precise locality where this particular 

 specimen was found, although he had an impression that it was found 

 on a thistle head, but he was positive in his assertion that all his cap- 

 tures were from Oxford, and that no specimens had been added from 

 other sources." As will be gathered from what has been said, further 

 evidence is still needed to prove that the beetle is really indigenous ; in 

 my record of the specimen from near Oxford (Ent. Monthly Mag. xxvi. 

 86) I am made by a printer's error to say " it deserves a ' prominent ' 

 admission to our lists," whereas the word I really used was " provisional ;" 

 such a provisional admission it certainly has a claim to quite as much as 

 many other species. 



(EDEMERIDJE. 



This family contains upwards of fifty genera, and between two hun- 

 dred and three hundred species ; they are for the most part elongate, 

 slender and delicate insects, and are often very brightly coloured ; in 

 the perfect state they frequent flowers ; their wings are large, and they 

 are quick fliers, but their other motions are comparatively slow ; they are 

 widely distributed, but are, as far as is at present known, much more cha- 

 racteristic of temperate than of tropical countries ; some of the species bear 

 a strong superficial resemblance to the Telephoridae ; they have been placed 

 by some authors near the Cantharida?; but they appear to be allied much 

 more closely to the Pythidae and Melandryidse. The following are the 

 chief characteristics of the family : Head inclined, large, more or less nar- 

 rowed behind eyes, inserted in thorax by a broad neck ; eyes variable, 

 sometimes very large, not reaching the base of the mandibles which are 

 flattened and bifid at apex ; antenna? long, or very long, nearly always 



