/?;vV/.n7/ Sppcles o/ Iliilipliis. 10,3 



tiiiental .s|)(jciiiien.s is liinitcil to one or two sjx'ciinens, ami 

 the species apjioars to be somewhat scarce. I have a note 

 concernin;^ one specimen from the collection of Captain Ste. 

 Claire Deville, " $ //. wehncket. Detorniined on p^eneral 

 form only. On the fiist h)ok at this specimen it aj)j)eare(l to 

 he impunctate, hut, hy ihe aid of higli magnification ( x 172), 

 I mai<e out extremely fine j)uncturation at the apex of the 

 elytra, this extendin<f halfway up but only along the external 

 borders." 



So far as I know, the females of //. nomax are always 

 completely punctate, even in tUe'^hrownpatms^' variety, which 

 is, according to its at present known distribution, entirely 

 confined to south-eastern England ami is therefore possibly 

 the " continental " form of the species. 



I am now satisfied that the females of //. immaculatuSj 

 alihough normally having impunctate elytra, sometimes have 

 slight puncturation. I have several specimens which on the 

 majority of characters aiirce with typical immncithdus females, 

 but are more or less j)unct;ite. this jjuncturation in most cases, 

 but not in all, being confined to the extreme apex of the 

 elytra. 



All females of //. apicaJis, so far as I know, have the 

 elytra completely punctate and all females of II. fuhicollisy 

 which is not a British species, are quite impunctate, so that 

 in these two species this female character may be as invariable 

 as in //. noma.v. 



With regard to //. fluviatilis^ I gather that Edwards 

 regards the female as alwajs having the elytra completely 

 punctate, though he only says " the females of this species 

 exhibit the elytral |)unctnration very clearly, the surface 

 in some examples being appreciably dull " (5, p. 8). Both 

 Gerhardt and Wehncke refer to the female of this species as 

 Laving the posterior half of the elytra finely punctured, and 

 it is surprising that Edwards should have passed over this 

 statement, especially after having emphasized the fact that 

 the punctiuation in those sjiecimens he examined was such as 

 to make the indiviiluals dull in a|)peaiance. After examining 

 a large number of British and Irish specimens, I have only 

 found two in ^vhich the pnncturation on the disc of the elytra 

 was at all weak: it was there, right to the base, but it was 

 faintly marked. One of the s))ecimens came from the river 

 Niih (Kirkcudbrightshire) ami the other from the River Cam 

 (Cambridgeshire). I have seen only a few continental speci- 

 mens — a series sent me by Captain Ste. Claire Deville irom 

 France, of which eight were females, and of these six at least 

 (I neglected to note the other two) have the elytra impunctate 



