342 Mr. A. S. Woodward on the 



11. Necrodes littoralis^ Linn. 

 Necrodes littoralis, Linn, Fn, Suec. p. 450. 

 Is not common in Japan. 



12. Necrodes nigricornis^ Harold. 



Neci'odes niffvicorms, Harold, Deutsche Abhandl. nat. Ver. Bremen, 

 1875, p. 286. 



This is one of the commonest of the Japanese Coleoptera, 

 and occurs both inland and on the coast. 



The descriptions of Silpha sylvatica, suhrufa, and m'gro- 

 punctata are given in the ' Entomologist/ Oct. 1887. 



[Note. — Eudcemonius, snprk p. 72, must be changed to 

 EvtriplaXj as the first name has been used in Lepidoptera.] 



XLV. — On the so-called Microdon nuchalis, Dixon, from 

 the Chalk of Sussex, a new Species of Platax. By A. 

 ISmith Woodward, F.G.S., F.Z.S., of the British Mu- 

 seum (Natural History). 



In his well-known work on ' The Geology and Fossils of 

 Sussex ' (p. 369, pi. xxxii. fig, 7) Mr. Frederic Dixon figured 

 and briefly noticed a small deep-bodied fish from the Chalk 

 of Washington, Sussex, which he referred to the Pycnodont 

 Microdon, and considered to represent a new species of that 

 genus, named M. nuchalis. The paragraph and figure were 

 reprinted, without comment, in the revised edition of the work 

 in 1878, and, so far as I am aware, the determination has 

 hitherto been accepted as correct. 



The original specimen, however^ is now preserved, with 

 Mr. Dixon's other fossils, in the British Museum, and a 

 recent study of its characters has shown that it is in no 

 respects allied to the Pycnodontid^, but rather belongs to a 

 truly Teleostean genus. The fossil is too fragmentary to 

 allow of any very precise determination, but sufficient is pre- 

 served to indicate approximately its afiinities ; and as it 

 evidently represents a family hitherto undetected in the 

 English Chalk, I propose briefly to enumerate the mo&t 

 important of its structural features. 



