OERAMBYOID^. 155 



June 20, 1903, by Miss M. A. Sharp near Brockenhiust , Mr. Edward 

 Saunders (Ent. Mo. Mag. 1903, 228) then recorded another specimen of 

 the same insect taken in July, 1901, near Betchworth, Surrey, but not 

 recorded, because it was thought to be a casual introduction ; records 

 of other captures then began to be made known and Mr. Bouskell 

 announced a new species taken by him in 1902 at Market Bosworth 

 (Ent. Rec. 1903, p. 288) under the name of T. castaneum* which is 

 now rightly regarded as the same insect as the others ; the capture 

 of anotlier specimen of T. castaneum at Esher was soon afterwards 

 announced by Mr. G. E. Bryant (Ent. Mo. Mag. 1905, 69) ; the great 

 discovery of the species, iiowever, was made by the Rev. G. H. Crawshay, 

 who reared a very fine series of it from larch at Leighton Buzzard, and 

 supplied most of the British collections with it ; Mr. Ci-awshay further 

 worked out the life history of the species with the greatest care and 

 embodied his researches in the very valuable paper in the Tr'ansactions 

 of the Entomological Society above referred to (1907, Part ii. 183-212, 

 Plates xv.-xx.) ; this paper, whicli is a model of research in the life 

 history of a single insect, practically exhausts the subject. 



Taken in some numbers at Bardon Hill, Leicestershire, by Messrs. 

 Talbot and Payne in 1910, and by Mr. Donisthorpe at Oxshottin 1911. 

 It has also occurred at King's Lynn, Norfolk (Atmore), Enfield (Pool), 

 Bradfield (Joy), Oxford .(Walker), &c. 



All Mr. Crawshay 's examples, which were first taken, had pitchy- 

 black legs, and it was chiefly on this character that Dr. Sharp (Ent. 

 Mo. Mag. 1905, 271) described T. cratoshayi as a separate species ; it 

 was soon, however, obvious that the character was variable and that the 

 species was nothing more than a variety of the recently described 

 T. gabrieli, Weise. It appears to be almost certain that all the 

 specimens captured in Britain must be i-eferred to the last-named 

 species, as the dift'erences of colour, length and sculpture of thorax, &c., 

 aribrd very doubtful characters. I have before me two specimens bred 

 by myself from a batch of four larvse sent to me by Mr. Crawshay : one 

 has the legs pitchy-black and the thorax just about as long as broad, 

 almost slightly transverse ; and in the other the legs are pitchy -red 

 (they were brighter red in life) and the thorax is plainly narrower, 

 longer than broad, and rather difl^erently sculptured ; it is these 

 difi'erences in specimens of one brood that should make coleopterists 

 very chary of erecting new species on slight variations. 



I believe that T. parcum, Sharp (Ent. Mo. Mag. 1905, 272) is at 

 most a variety of T. gabrieli, but, as there may be some doubt, I here 

 quote his description and remarks : 



" Tetropium parcum, sp. n. 



" $ Sat angustum, baud depressum, prothorace parum transverso, 

 sat nitido, subtiliter punctato, areis Isevigatis parum magnis, margine 

 basali paruui elevata." L. 14-15 mm. 



* Mr. Bouskell's insects were the first red-legged specimens of T. gahrieli 

 taken in Europe. 



