l( t,^' 



T II i; A N N A r. s 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[Kir.IITFI SERIIvS.] 

 No. 89. MAY 1015. 



XXXVIII. — Sates on the Coleopterous Family Dormcstlilae, 

 and Descri'fdions of some new Forms in the British 

 Mus-'uiit. By Gilbert J. Arrow. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



The catalogue of this family of beetles compiled by Dalla 

 Tone and published in 1011, while of the greatest value as 

 ail indispensable preliminary to the systematic study of the 

 ^roup, is necessarily uncritical and in many respects defective 

 from the fact that tlie compiler has no intimate knowledge of 

 the insectswith which it deals. While studying and arranging 

 with its help the British ^luseum collection of Dermostida?, 

 I have recorded for the intormation of future workers the 

 various corrections and omissions which have come under my 

 notice ; and these are published here, together with descrip- 

 tions of some of the new species in the collection which 

 appeared specially worthy of receiving names. 



With an ex'traordinary degree of variability in the forma- 

 tion of th<* antenna?, and, to a less extent, in other points of 

 structure, these insects have a general similarity which rar<dy 

 leaves any doubt as to their belonging to the family. Tne 

 most im])orfant and distinctive feature is the existence of a 

 frontal ocellus, which is absent in the genus Dermestts only. 

 This intt'resting feature is only known in one other family of 

 Coleoptera — the kjiapliylinulai (subfamily Omaliinne), — for 

 the statements that it is found in the genera Fterolvnia and 

 Ilifhcatus are quite erroneous. 



Ann. it Mag. X. Hist. Ser. .S. I'/, xv. 2\) 



