CHRYSOMELID.i:. 161 



are so variable, they are hard to recognise at first sight. Several 

 specimens of the var. glahrataweve taken at Matlock Bath by Professor 

 Beare and Mr. Donisthorpe. 



LEMA, Fabricius. 



Ij. septentrionis, Weise (Ent, Mo. iii. 158; Naturg. d. Ins. 

 Deutsch. vi. i. G;j)j {v. Champion, Ent. Mo. Mag. sxxiii. (2 Ser. viii.) 181)7 

 135). L. erichsoni, Thoms. (Skand. Col. viii. lil, et Brit. Col. nee Suffr.). 

 This is the insect standing in our collections as L. ei^ichsoni ; but it must 

 be referred to Weise's insect, which is described by its author as being 

 " more slender than L. erichsoni, Sufir., and nearly as elongate as 

 L. melano'pa, L. ; sky-blue, the thorax darker, nearly black, the head 

 generally greenish ; the latter shaped as in L. erichsoni, but rather 

 more distantly, strongly and more deeply punctured. The thorax is 

 very similar to that of L. erichsoni, but distinctly narrower and deeply 

 constricted before the base, tlie constriction rather remotely impressed 

 with deep punctures of difl'erent sizes, but more finely and evenly 

 punctured at the sides, where the constriction is more shallow ; the 

 disc scarcely visibly, and not closely, punctured, very shining, with large 

 punctures nearly arranged in rows towards the anterior angles and in 

 three longitudinal rows in the middle. The elytra are moderately 

 shining, coarsely punctate-striate, the stri?e deep, the interstices very 

 narrow, partly touched by the punctures." 



Not uncommon in meadows in Ireland, but rather local ; Mr. C. W. 

 Buckle obtained it plentifully on young shoots of oats, in company with 

 the larva, in July (Irish List, Johnson and Halbert, 700). Dr. 

 Power took it at Waterfoid, and it was considered one of our rarest 

 British species for some time, but it has now been found in Donegal, 

 Derry, Antrim, Down, Galway, Louth, Westmeath, Dublin, King's 

 •County, Wexford and Cork (Mr. Donisthorpe has taken it near Caragh 

 Lake, co. Kerry) ; it does not appear to have occurred in England or 

 Scotland. It lives on a species of Nasturtittm. 



In shape it is very like L. melano2xt, Gyll. At one time I was 

 inclined to agree with Crotch and others in regarding it as a form of 

 that insect, but it differs in its average less elongate shape and in 

 having the thorax distinctly wider behind the constriction, and therefore 

 apparently shorter. On the Continent it has been recorded from 

 Miiggelsee near Berlin, and from Southern and Central Sweden. 



L. erichsoni, Sufi"r. (Stett. Zeit. 1841, 104, oiec Thoms.). This is 

 the insect referred to by Mr. Champion [I.e. 130), and afterwards by 

 Mr. Halbert and Mr. Johnson, as a variety of L. septentrionis, with the 

 thorax metallic green and the elytra relatively broader ; it appears, 

 however, to be quite distinct and to be the true X. erichsoni, Sutfr. ; as 

 such it is an interesting addition to our list. Apart from the colour of 

 the thorax, which is, however, very constant in Z. septentrionis (being 

 always black, with a bronze reflection), it may be at once known by the 

 broader, shorter, and less parallel elytra (which are shaped more as in 



L 



