138 SOAEAB^ID^. 



not differ materially from U. femoralis, I am inclined to follow the 

 synonymy of Hey den, Reitter and Weise, as follows : 

 H.flexuosus, Steph., 111. Brit. ii. 1829, 101. 

 femoralis, Kryn., Bull. Mosc. v. 1832, 115. 

 onarginatus, Gyll., Ins. Suec. i. 137 {nee Fab.). 

 arenarms, Kies., Linn. Ent. v. 284. 

 Ganglbauer (Die Kilfer von Mitteleurop., iv. 133) gives the same 

 synonymy and says that he cannot distinguish the Irish specimens of 

 11, arenarius from uncoloured examples of //. fiexuosus. 



SCARAB^ID^. 



APHODIUS, Illiger. 



A. niger, Panz. (Faun. Germ. 37, 1). Almost cylindrical, black, 

 shining, antennae ferruginous with the club black ; head gently convex, 

 with the cheeks scarcely produced, forehead without prominences, 

 thickly punctured ; thorax as broad as elytra, almost parallel-sided, 

 with scattered larger punctures and the interspaces with fine punc- 

 tures ; elytra almost parallel, slightly widened behind the middle, 

 with fine and finely crenulate strife, interstices flat, extremely finely 

 and almost invisibly punctured ; prosternum thickly punctured and 

 with very fine grey pubescence at the sides, mesosternum finely keeled 

 between the coxfe, metasternum in the middle in both sexes very finely 

 and difiusely punctured ; legs dai^k, more or less reddish, front tibite 

 somewhat dilated, posterior tibiae narrow, tarsi with the first joint 

 long, as long as the upper spur, and only a little shorter than the three 

 following joints taken together, these being of diminishing length. 



In the male the metasternum is impressed in the middle and the 

 head is less convex ; in the female the metasternum is flat and the 

 head more convex. L. 4-5 mm. 



New Forest, near Brockenhurst (Sharp, Champion and Walker, 

 1909). The species is considerably larger than the immaculate variety 

 of A. plagiatus, L., which it strongly resembles; the following are the 

 characters by which Erichson distinguishes A. niger from this form of 

 A. 2)lcigiaius : (1) greater size; (2) the head more closely punctate 

 with the cheeks less projecting ; (3) the lax-ge punctures of the thorax 

 smaller ; (4) the metasternum less punctate in the middle and in the 

 male not hairy ; (5) the hind feet with the first joint long, as long as 

 the upper spur of the tibia, and but little shorter than the three 

 following joints together. It must, however, be admitted that some of 

 these distinctions are not very evident {v. Sharp, Ent. Mo. Mag. xlv. 

 (2 Ser. XX.), 1909, 124). A. jiiger has been alternately admitted to and 

 rejected from our lists ; it must, however, be now reinstated. 



Dr. Sharp {I.e. 124-126) discusses the whole question at length, 

 and believes that he possesses one, if not two, other closely allied new 

 species of Aplbodius, which come close to A. niger, but differ in 

 important particulars. 



