M. II. Jekel — Tentamenta Entomologica. 203 



XXII. — Tentamenta Entomologica. By H. Jekel, M.E.S., &c. 



Having been, for some years engaged in the determination and 

 classification of parts of Messrs. Bowring and Saunders's Coleoptera, 

 the careful study of these extensive collections, in connexion with 

 my own, together with access to other important cabinets in London 

 and Paris, has enabled me to determine many unsettled cases of 

 synonymy, and to unite many natural groups confounded or dis- 

 connected by various authors. 



The important collections received by Mr. Saunders from different 

 parts of Greece (Athens, Albania, and Crete) would, if consulted, 

 greatly increase the amount of our knowledge of that fauna, showing 

 a fair addition of species, not only to the lists of Brulle* and Lucas f, 

 but also to the more recent and highly interesting works of ReicheJ, 

 Schaum, Rraatz, and v. Kiesenwetter§. 



Again, some important collections that I have received from 

 Calabria, Sicily, Andalusia, Galicia, Portugal, and Algiers, have 

 satisfied me of the absolute distinction and, on the other hand, the 

 close affinity or even identity of numerous species with others col- 

 lected in countries wide apart, viz. the south of France, Spain, and 

 Portugal, with Greece, South Russia, Turkey, Anatolia, Caucasus, 

 and Persia. 



Calathus circumseptus, Germ., and Calathus lateralis, Kuster. 

 Having received many specimens of Calathus circumseptus, Germ., 

 from Sicily and Algiers, I have been enabled to ascertain that Cal. 

 lateralis, Kiist. (die Kafer Europa's, xii. 34, 1848), is a mere variety 

 of that species. The specimens from the above localities are gene- 

 rally larger in size than those from the south of France ; and it is 

 only in specimens " nuper exclusis," or having a lighter coloration on 

 the elytra, that these and the thorax seem to be proportionally 

 broader and flatter, from the teguments not having acquired their 

 entire solidity and fulness of convexity, characters known to be 

 shared by all " nuper exclusa? " specimens. I have seen eveiy inter- 

 mediate in convexity and apparent breadth of thorax and elytra 

 between the extreme lateralis and the normal circumseptus, there- 



* Exped. Scient. de Moree, 1832-35. 



t Essai sur les Animaux Articules qui habitent l'lle de Crete, in Revue et 

 Magasin de Zoologie, 1853. 



{ Coleopt. recueillis en Orient par M. F. de Saulcy, in Ann. Soc. Ent. de 

 France, 1855-58. 



§ Berliner Entomol. Zeitschrift, 1857-59 (in course of publication). 



