86 



THK BNTOMOLOOIST. 



stands, and this in spite of the evidence of such highly reputable 

 authorities as Latreille, H. Doubleday, F. Smith, and the Eev. 

 L. Jenyns, to mention only some of those who have been actual 

 witnesses of the performance. His own suggestion in the 

 February number (p. 64) as to the manner in which the sound 

 is produced will scarcely stand the test of investigation. I have 

 examined afresh both Anohium striatum and A. tessellatum ] but 

 in neither of these species have I been able to find the special 

 structures he has figured and described. The apical area on the 

 under side of the elytron which is represented in his figure as 

 being crossed by oblique lines or ridges is, as a mattter of fact, 

 covered by a delicate pubescence having a silvery appearance, 

 and is not crossed by a single ridge. This suggests to my mind 

 that there has been a mistake in the identification of the 

 species, for it is true, as pointed out in my paper on the " Stri- 

 dulating Organs in Coleoptera" (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1900, p. 439), 

 that certain species of Anohium show a series of ridges some- 

 what in the position indicated in Mr. Swinton's figure, but it has 

 never been shown that any of these species tick like the death- 

 watches. 



Although unable to agree with Mr. Swinton, I gladly recog- 

 nize his very praiseworthy spirit of enquiry, and should like now 

 to offer him a suggestion. 



Spring will very soon be here. April and May* are, I find, 

 the months in which the plaintive notes of the Anobiids (A. tes- 

 sellatum,]- in particular) have been most often heard, and their 

 amours displayed before the eyes of prying enquirers. If Mr. 

 Swinton will endeavour to obtain some lively specimens during 

 one of those months, and keep them by him on a table, 

 either in a little box or under a glass, as others have done, he 

 may meet with a like success, and be able to satisfy himself as 

 to how exactly the sound is made. As I have never witnessed 

 the tapping of Anohium, I shall be glad to have the chance of 

 trying a similar experiment, and I hope that other readers of 

 the ' Entomologist ' may be induced to do likewise and let us 

 know the result. 



There are one or two small points that might be settled,! 



■'- Is the imago of A, domesticum = striatuvi emerged by April or even 

 May? — cf. my notes (loc. cit.). — C. M. 



f Perhaps A, tessellatum is a household insect, though not (if I correctly 

 recollect) given by Mr. E. A, Butler as such. Indoors, I have it only from 

 an eight-hundred-year-old beam of Ely Cathedral. At all events, such as I 

 have found came from paludose willows in early May ; and it does not occur 

 in my old house at Monk Soham, where I have heard (this time really) A. 

 domesticmn in'^'^mg in the "watches" of a toothache night, as it s7io?tZ^ tap, 

 four-to-eightly. — C. M. 



\ Another is the association, parasitism or inquilinism, of Corynetes 

 cceruleus on this beetle. Both are abundant in my house, but I never saw 

 the former alive till I went there in 1904. It is common on ceilings and 

 windows, always a little before the time of appearance of A. domesticum in 



