1889.] 331 



ON THE BEITISH SPECIES OP THE GENUS ANASPIS, OEOFPEOY, 

 WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES. 



BY THE EEY. CANON FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S. 



The MordellidtB may be regarded as divided naturally into two 

 tribes, the llordellina and the Anaspina ; the former of these is 

 characterized by having the anterior coxae broadly distant at base, and 

 the pygidium produced into a more or less strong style ; whereas, in 

 the latter, the anterior coxa? are almost contiguous at the base, and 

 the pygidium is not produced into a style. The genus Anaspis, which 

 contains the great majority of the members of the tribe Anaspina, 

 comprises about seventy species, of which about forty are found in 

 Europe, and nearly all the remainder in North America and Northern 

 Asia ; as, however, one species has also been described from the 

 Australian region, it is probable that the genus is much more extensive 

 and more widely spread than is at present known. 



The species are small and very delicately made insects, and are 

 found in flowers or by sweeping herbage ; certain species abound in 

 the blossoms of the hawthorn in May and early June, and, in fact, it 

 is almost impossible on a warm sunny day to find a tree in bloom on 

 which they are not abundant. The British species are usually con- 

 sidered to be eight in number, but we evidently possess two if not 

 three more, and probably others may yet be discovered. They are 

 variable in colour, and some of them are easily distinguished ; the 

 unicolorous black group, however, is well known as presenting great 

 difficulties. 



As I have recently been giving some attention to the genus for 

 my work on the " British Coleoptera" and have found it one of the 

 most difficult, in some respects, of all that I have yet worked out, I 

 thought that it might be of advantage to publish my conclusions 

 in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, in the hope that other 

 Coleopterists who have taken an interest in the genus may be able to 

 correct or add anything to them. 



The chief differences lie in the formation of the joints of the 

 antenna?, and particularly in the appendages or " laciniae " of the third 

 ventral segment of the male ; the sculpture also is slightly variable, 

 but this does not afford any striking characteristic. In certain species 

 the colour is important, but in others it may prove very misleading ; 

 for instance, A. rvficollis is marked by having the head black or pitchy- 

 black and the thorax red, but there appears to be a continental variety 

 with the head red. Specimens of A. frontalis are also found on the 

 continent with the front and sides of the thorax yellow. 



EE 2 



