STAPH YLINID.E. 73 



as long as broad ; the elyti^a are considerabl}^ longer than the thorax. In 

 the more slender specimens the greatest width of the body (i.e. the 

 abdomen beyond the middle) is only ^ mm. : in the broadest examples 

 it is just 1 mm. The punctuation of the elytra is very similar to that of 

 B. jxdl'rpes, to which species it is most closely allied ; it is, however, 

 much narrower, with more slender legs, and the thorax is not transverse. 

 Overstrand, near Cromer, Norfolk, dug out from the nearly pei'pen- 

 dicular clay clifls in numbers, June 1897 (Elliman) ; Mundesley (Elliott). 

 B. fracticornis, Er. Dr. Sharp (Ent. Mo. Mag. xlvii. (2 Ser. 

 xxii.) 1911, 57) discusses the question of B. fracticornis and its British 

 allies. The group, he says, is distinguished by there being no open 

 chink on the side of the prothorax, by the pronotum possessing a channel 

 on the middle, and by the existence of a rather large delicate memlnane 

 on the hind part of the fifth ventral segment in the male. B. fracticornis 

 is the type of the genus Tadunus of Schiodte. In his genus Bargus (of 

 which pallipes is the type), there is an open chink, over the coxse, on the 

 prothorax, and the males do not have a membrane on the fifth ventral 

 plate. B. fracticornis appears to be far from abundant in Britain. 

 Dr. Sharp has only taken one specimen, at Hammersmith Marshes, 

 April 16, 1863, but jNIr. de la Garde finds it at Bx-aunton, and 

 Mr. Champion at Woking. Large examples of B. femoralis are apt to 

 be contused with it, but the sexual characters of the two species are 

 tlifterent, and B. fracticornis is rather larger and broader, and has clear 

 yellow legs and antennse ; in this species, too, the hind margin of the 

 fifth ventral plate terminates in the middle as a delicate white trans- 

 parent membrane : in front this membrane joins the body of the plate 

 in a vei'v evident curvilinear manner, and at the point of junction on 

 the hind margin of the two tissues there is thus formed a very obtuse, 

 but di.stinct, angle, which does not project as a tooth. 



After discussing as above the qvxestion of B. fracticornis, Dr. Sharp 

 proceeds to comment upon two insects which he regards as probably new 

 species, B. Icetior, Muls. et Rey, and B. sp. n. ? ; for the present, 

 however, it seems best to consider them as varieties, although the foi-mer, 

 at any rate, may very probably be given specific rank. As yet it is not quite 

 clear whether Sharp's and Mulsant and Rey's insects are really identical. 

 B. fracticornis, var. laetior, Muls. et Rey. We have in 

 Britain, according to Dr. Sharp, what is considered to be a vai'iety of 

 B. fracticornis, with red elytra; this, he believes, will prove to be the 

 B. Icetior of Mulsant and Rey. All that is known about the species is 

 a remark made by the French authors at the end of their description of 

 B. fracticornis (Col. Fr. Brach. Oxyteliens, p. 151) : "The colour of the 

 elytra ranges from black to pitchy red, and even to clear red, with the 

 scutellary region very slightly darker. In this last-mentioned variety 

 theie occurs a foi^m slightly smaller, with the posterior angle of the 

 prothorax a little less rounded, and which has all the appearance of a 

 distinct species [B. Iretior, nobis)." This description applies, Dr. Sharp 

 says, perfectly to the insect under consideration, except as to size. The 



