NEW BRITISH SPECIES, ETC., IN 1868. 15 



outer ; the elytra are very delicately but distinctly punctu- 

 lated, especially towards the sides, with the lateral yellow 

 band interrupted by black lines ; the intermediate tibiae are 

 ferruginous, not pitcl)y; and the front tarsi in the male have 

 the second joint very delicately strigulose, and the claws not 

 elongate, but strongly and equally curved ; — 



And H. Icevipennis, id., 1. c, p. 88, which is rather the 

 larger of the two, with the black fascia of the thorax not 

 produced above the middle, the elytra entirely smooth and 

 uninterruptedly banded on the sides, the intermediate tibiae 

 pitchy, the inner posterior claw not so much shorter than 

 the outer, and the second joint of the front tarsi in the male 

 closely and strongly strigosely coriaceous, the claws being 

 elongate, suddenly curved at the base, toothed, and sub- 

 dilated in the middle beiaeath. Of this insect the female 

 appears to be unknown. 



Our British species appears to be If. pimctipennis. 



6. Ilybius sexdentatus, Schiodte. 

 Mr. Crotch,!, c, notes Thomson's present opinion that 

 this insect is merely a variety of the male of/. obscuruSy in 

 which the intermediate tarsi have the outer claw beneath 

 widened into a toothlet in the middle. In Ins. Deutschl. i, 

 pt. ii, 92, the same opinion is expressed, and it is pointed out 

 that the rounded apex of the outer posterior claw in the male, 

 characteristic o^ ohscuruSfh preserved in the var. sexdentatus. 

 Mr. Crotch states that he has noticed that sexdentatus and 

 ohscurus rarely, if ever, occur together. From Thomson's 

 ^^ nonnisi distinctus" in his original comparison of the two 

 insects (he usually says '^7nox" or ^^ optime," even in very 

 closely allied species), it may be believed he never had much 

 faith in I. sexdentatus. 



