The ruNCTL'UATiON OF Tiiii Elytka IX Tin: Fi:.mam:. 



Apparontly Gorlianlt was the first to discover clilTeronces 

 in the extent to which the elytra of the females ot" tU'i 

 clitTerent species are covered with a very fine puncluration, 

 and he mentions that in //. ruficollis the apical half of the 

 elytra is thus punctured*. Now Edwards found that in 

 //, rujiroflis the elytra :ue entirely punctate and conseipienlly 

 assumed that Grrhardt, Wehncke, and others were wrong. 

 Bedel (2) had already said that he could find " outres les 

 trois types separ(?s })ar M. Gerhardt, toutes les nuances de 

 transition dans la forme gonerale, la coloration fonciere, 

 le dessin des elytres et la force de la ponctuation," but 

 Edwards assumed that he also was wrong. 



After examining large numbers of specimens I have 

 satisfied myself that, although in the majority of females of 

 British and Iiisli ruficuVis the elytra are com[)le!ely punctate 

 as desciibed by Edwards, sj)ecimens occur in which, at the 

 base, they are impunctate, even under high magnification 

 (x 172), and I have seen a few specimens in which the 

 ])uncturation is even more reduced and conHncd to the 

 extreme apex. Of the French specimens sent me by 

 Captain Ste. CMaire Deville, almost all were impunctate on 

 the basal half of the elytra. The Dutch specimens sent ni^ 

 by Dr. Everts were more like our own, but semipunctate 

 ones were not scarce, while none of the specimens sent mo 

 from Austria by the late llerr Ganglbauer or by llerr lleitter 

 were com])letely punctate and a few were identical in punc- 

 turation with those referred to by Edwards as II. fulvicolliK. 



l^oth Ganglbauer and lleitter sent me as 11. ruficoUia 

 female specimens which were quite impunctate, and in such 

 cases, but for their larger size, I am unable to say why they 

 .should not be described as //. heyden'i, as 1 can find no 

 reliable distinctive character between the females of these 

 two species ! In one or two of tliese impunctate " rvJicoUm " 



• Edwanls finds fimlt with Newbery (14) for doscribin}^ the elytra 

 nsi " nlutnceous," and says " the latter term, which I understand to 

 rxprcss the condition found on the inter-p^ices of tiie thorax of certain 

 ppecies of LaccobiitSy 1. e. covered with minute cracli.s like mud or 



mosaic " No ppeciiB of Lmcohius with whidi I am arquiiinted 



lias the thorax covered with " minute cracks." In L. uUitcucus, for 

 instance, the thorax is covered with extremely fine and close puncluration 

 quite similar to tiint found on the elytra of tlie females of most of the 

 JIali/i/i. The word " alutaceous '' may a])parently mean eitiier "the 

 colour of bull leather '' or "leathery, coriaceous," so tluit Tliomson pre- 

 sumably misapplied it in naniinif L. cihitaceu^, using it in the same sense 

 Rd it was afterwards used by Jk'del and Newbery. 



