in the antennae in Conopaljius that any essential difference can 

 be detected ; and the only claim the CEdemerae appear to have 

 to our genus arises from the male having its thighs incrassated. 



The following are the descriptions of the specimens before 

 us ; but great uncertainty exists respecting the species and their 

 sexes, and I am inclined to think that N. clavipes is the male : 

 the small dark insect in our plate being also a male, is probably 

 merely a variety of the same with simple posterior legs, and 

 the other insect figured {T. bipiinctatus Fab.) I believe to be 

 the female of the same species, and this is rendered still more 

 probable by the varieties recorded in Schonherr. 



A considerable number of both sexes have been taken within 

 the last few years, principally on the white-thorns when in 

 flower, in the vicinity of Monk's Wood, and formerly at 

 Windsor, in May. I understand they stick so fast to the 

 bushes that they are detached with great difficulty, which may 

 be one reason of their being seldom seen. The trifid claws 

 are well suited for catching hold, and the thickened hind legs 

 of N. clavipes are astonishingly strong and well adapted for 

 holding fast : at the base of the tibiae I observed a notch on 

 each side, covered by a membrane, most likely for the action 

 of muscles that draw the tibiae close to the underside of the 

 thigh, which with the little spine beneath it and the hook at 

 the apex would enable it to hold very fast to a leaf or branch, 

 and even in attempting to open these in a relaxed specimen, the 

 coxa was forced from the socket before I could accomplish it. 



N. clavipes 111. — Schon. Syn. App. 3. p. 7. 



Male piceous black with grey pubescence, thickly and minutely punctured; 

 mouth, 3 basal joints of antenna?, entire margin of thorax and sometimes an 

 abbreviated line down the back, and external margin of elytra pale ferrugi- 

 nous ; sides and tips of the latter free from pubescence; base of thighs and 

 of tibiae ferruginous, the former very much incrassated in the hinder pair and 

 the tibise hooked at the apex (fig. 5 f ) ; apex of abdomen orange beneath. 

 Gyllenhal desci'ibes a var. (•>. with the thighs entirely black. 



Male smaller and similar, but the base of the thighs and tibise are ferru- 

 ginous-orange, the latter black at the base and the posterior legs ai'e simple. 

 For the loan of this specimen (the right-hand figure in the plate) I am in- 

 debted to A. Matthews, Esq., who took it and another, which has "a slender 

 longitudinal yellow stripe on the thorax," on the blossoms of the White-thorn, 

 at Weston-on-the-green, in May 1830. 



N.bipunctatus Fab. — Curt. Brit.Ent. pi. 538., left-hand figure. 



Female tawny ochre, thickly and minutely punctured and clothed with 

 very short pubescence; antennae black, 3 basal joints head and thorax rufous; 

 eyes, 2 spots adjoining them on the crown of the head, 2 on the back of the 

 thorax and tips of the elytra black ; legs ochreous-orange, with a black spot 

 above at the apex of the thighs, and the posterior entirely black at the tips, 

 as well as the tibiae; tarsi fuscous, anterior ochreous, penultimate joint and 

 tip of terminal one fuscous : pectus black, clothed with grey pubescence. 



Gyllenhal also describes a " var. /3 with the elytra black, 

 the exterior margin pale". Schon. Syv. 



I think Mr. Mattheivs has taken N. hipunctatus, and last 

 summer Mr. G. A. Wright captured it at Scarborough, but 

 the specimen figured is from Mr. Shuckhard's Cabinet. 



The Plant is Gnaphalium rectum (Upright Cudweed). 



