It is now nearly thirty years since the differences between this 

 insect and Necrobia Qiiadra were })ointed out by Mr. Marsham 

 in his " Entomologia Britannica," yet those continental writers 

 who have referred to his work have confounded the two spe- 

 cies. With a hope of preventing any further confusion, the 

 two geneta are now described. That Paykull's and Gyllen- 

 hal's genus Corynetes is synonymous with Necrobia there can 

 be no doubt, for they describe the palpi as filiform, the man- 

 dibles bidentate, the terminal joint of the antennae as the largest, 

 and the tarsi all 4-jointed. Olivier, on the contrary, has evi- 

 dently figured our Corynetes, for his dissections and the de- 

 scription of them agree very well with ours, and consequently 

 differ very materially from those of Necrobia. Fabricius has 

 given the former name to both our genera, but in his generic 

 characters he has described our Corynetes. 



The form of the antennae and tarsi is quite sufficient to 

 distinguish the genera, and to justify their separation: the 

 economy of the insects is also very different: for it is well 

 known that our Necrobige live in decayed animal substances, 

 but the larvae of Corynetes, like the typical Cleridse, appear 

 to inhabit wood, and the perfect insects are found, sometimes 

 in abundance, in houses and in flowers, in the month of May. 



The following valuable observations relating to our insect, 

 together with the specimens, were transmitted to me by Major 

 General Hardwicke. " When at Wisbeach in October last, 

 my attention was drawn to the depredations going on in the 

 plank of a deal box, in which I found the larvae of a small 

 coleopterous insect [Corynetes violacens) imbedded in dust, 

 which their little jaws had produced, between the upper and 

 lower surfaces of the plank. I found also in the same dust 

 the cocoon of the pupa of some of the larva?, of a soft silky 

 leathery texture, not unlike what are formed by the clothes- 

 eating moths, when the larvae assume the pupa state. In this 

 cocoon there appeared to be three cells, two of them unoc- 

 cupied, the third closed and full; I therefore inclosed the 

 cocoon with the bit of plank in a box, to secure the insect 

 when it might become an imago, which occurred about six 

 days after." 



The plant is Campanula patula (Field Bell-flower). 



