432 [November, 



all to no purpose ; feeling rather disappointed, we decided to push on our way to 

 where we thought we had once seen ground that looked favourable. The day was 

 well advanced, but it was our only hope of success. I was, therefore, very glad soon 

 after arrival to be able to announce the first capture, a very fine example, and while 

 carefully boxing my specimen, Mr. Herd shouted he had two in his net at the same 

 time. Having helped him to secure his prizes, we started off again, but a moment 

 had hardly elapsed when he again called for my assistance to secure one which had 

 taken refuge from his net in one of the inside pockets of his coat amongst his. empty 

 boxes, and it required no little care to extract it without injury. We had thus 

 secured four specimens in less than that number of minutes, and soon forgot our 

 former discouragement. One of the specimens was a little rubbed, and had evidently 

 been out for some time, but the other three were very fine, and no doubt recently 

 emerged, in fact, we concluded we were near " where a family of larvae must have 

 fed."— S. T. Ellison, Perth : October Wtk, 1889. 



Notes on Peltastica Heitteri, Lewis, and Rhysodes exaratus, Serv., and on 

 Byrrhus fasciatus, L., and B. kamtschaticus, Mots. — In Vol. xx of this Magazine, 

 p. 79 (1883), I noted the differences between Peltatisca Heitteri from Japan and the 

 Siberian amurensis, Reitter, but at that time I had not seen a specimen of the 

 American tuberculata, Mannerheim. Dr. Sharp has now lent me four examples of the 

 last, and I am able to indicate some of the more important specific differences be- 

 tween the two insects. The antennae are distinctly shorter in Heitteri, and this 

 shortness is particularly noticeable in the third joint and the three terminal ones 

 which form the club ; the head is smaller and darker in colour, generally black, 

 distinctly more clearly punctured, the space before the clypeus more visibly raised, 

 and the sinuosities in the upper part of the eye-rim (well marked in tuberculata) are 

 obsolete ; the thorax has the anterior angles less produced, and the elytra are 

 relatively broader and shorter. There are differences also in the arrangement of the 

 tubercles on the elytra, which are difficult to indicate, as they vary in the individuals 

 of both kinds, but there is a uniformity of variation in each species. 



I have written this, because Dr. John Hamilton has introduced the name of 

 tuberculata into his Catalogue of Insects common to North America, Northern 

 Asia and Europe, on the assumption that Heitteri from Japan is the same species. 

 Peltastica tuberculata is not the same species, and therefore it should not be in his 

 list. Dr. John Hamilton (p. 134) appears to have inserted it on the strength of a 

 lotter written to him by Dr. Horn, the latter saying " Having compared specimens 

 sent to me by Mr. Lewis with a series in my cabinet of our species, they seem 

 scarcely more than a variety." Dr. Horn's sentence is somewhat ambiguous, but I 

 understand it to mean that Dr. Horn thinks there are two species, but, at the same 

 time, he has not closely examined them. 



I see also that Rhysodes exaratus, Serv., is given as American in the same 

 Catalogue. The differences between Rhysodes americanus, Lap., and exaratus, 

 Serv., are considerable, but I do not think any sketch of the comparative characters 

 of the two species has ever been published. I gave what I believe to be the correct 

 synonymy in the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, in 1888, p. 84 ; this was after seeing (as I 

 stated, p. 80) the type specimen described by Professor Westwood in 1835, and com- 

 paring it with examples from Michigan, and specimens of exaratus, Serv., from the 

 east of Europe and France. 



