August, 1889] . 837 



On flowers, &c. ; local, but somewhat widely distributed ; London 

 district, not uncommon, Eipley (Surrey), Darenth Wood, Claygate 

 (Ester) ; Thames Ditton ; New Forest ; Devon ; Birmingham district ; 

 Eepton ; Northumberland and Durham district, apparently rare ; 

 Scotland, rare, Solway District. 



As far as I know we only possess as British the variety thoracica, 

 L., which has the head and thorax testaceous-yellow, and the elytra 

 dark ; it much resembles at first sight A. ruficollis, but the latter 

 species has the head black. The variety of the latter with the head 

 red, which I have not seen as British, may be standing in some col- 

 lections under A. thoracica ; if so, it may be known by its longer 

 antennae, which are not moniliform, shorter thorax, and the presence 

 of appendages in the male ; it is also quite possible that the type, A. 

 flava, may be found mixed with A. subtestacea ; the antenna?, however, 

 of this latter species are much longer and not moniliform, with the 

 penultimate joints distinctly longer than broad, and the male charac- 

 ters are different. Mulsant (Coleopteres de France, Longipedes, pp. 

 110 & 113) causes still greater confusion by completely separating A. 

 thoracica from A. flava on the ground that the former has the penulti- 

 mate joints of the antennae in the male distinctly longer than broad, 

 and in the female scarcely (if at all) transverse ; it is obvious, there- 

 fore, that Mulsant's A. thoracica cannot be the same as the insect 

 which we ordinarily consider as the A. thoracica of Linne, and that it 

 stands, in fact, in the genus Anaspis proper, and not in the subgenus 

 Nasipa of Emery, in which the latter author places A. flava. Emery 

 (Essai Monographique sur les Mordellides, p. 21, L'Abeille, xiv) refers 

 the A. thoracica of Mulsant, at all events in part, to A. confusa, a new 

 species of his own ; this is very likely the true explanation of the 

 difficulty, and as it is very probable that the species occurs in Britain 

 (the localities given being Europe boreale et moyenne), it may perhaps 

 be of service to append his description : — 



A. confusa, Emery (A. thoracica, Muls., Longiped., p. 110, ex parte, 

 A. lateralis, Thorns., Skand. Coleop., vi, p. 302, $). 



Black, silky, with the head, thorax, base of antennas, and legs, rufo-testaceous, 

 posterior femora usually fusceseent ; thorax not one and a half times broader than 

 long ; antennae with the joints gradually and slightly narrowed towards apex, with 

 the penultimate joints feebly subconical in the male and more distinctly so in the 

 female. Length, 2£ — 3| mm. 



Male with the third segment of the abdomen produced behind, with the ap- 

 pendages approximate and nearly straight at base, and slightly curved inwards at 

 apex, passing beyond the apex of abdomen, fourth segment small, with less conspi- 

 cuous, depressed, appendages, fifth segment foveolate, incised at apex. 



M. Emery is also of opinion that a portion of Mulsant's A. 

 thoracica may perhaps have to be referred to his A. Costcc, a species 



FP 



