1889.] 433 



The chief differences between the two insects may be summed up as follows : — 

 in the European species the head is more transverse, and the lateral angle between 

 the cephalic lobe and the rostrum is evident ; but in the American species the head 

 is more rounded both before and behind. The humeral angles in exaratus, Serv., 

 are much more prominent and project at a different angle to those of americanus, 

 and the angles in the first are distinctly reflexed. The elytral punctures which con- 

 stitute the strise are deeper, and the interstices are not flat, as in americanus. The 

 sexual differences in the hind tibise are very marked, those in the American species 

 being much more simply fashioned. I think, also, the antennse are longer in exara- 

 tus, all the joints seem to me to be freer ; and there are still other differences, such 

 as the shape of the thorax, &c, which are constant, though not conspicuous. 



Mons. Albert Fauvel's "Liste de Coleopteres communs a l'Europe et a, l'Amd- 

 rique du Nord," just published, and kindly sent to me by the author, also contains 

 the name of the American species as a synonym of exaratus, Serv. 



It seems to me that since the year 1835 (more than 50 years ago), when West- 

 wood published the description of exaratus (not observing that the name was 

 employed by Serville in 1825), American and European Entomologists have been so 

 busy in studying their own faunas, that each, possessing a species of Rhysodes from 

 their own area and thinking the species on both sides of the Atlantic the same, it 

 has never happened that the two species have been side by side in any collection 

 which has been carefully scrutinized. 



Again, a third species in Dr. Hamilton's list is wrongly inserted, viz., Byrrhus 

 fasciatus, Linn., because Byrrhus kamtschaticus , Motsch., is not a variety of it. 

 Motschulsky compares the latter to fasciatus, but he says it is the size of pilula, 

 Linn. I have taken kamtschaticus on very high altitudes in Central Japan, also in 

 South Yezo, and I now record it from Japan for the first time ; the largest specimen 

 measures just over 4 lines, it measures 9 mm. ; the smallest specimen 7 mm., or the 

 equivalent of Motschulsky's measurement 3^ lines. The head is much larger than 

 that of fasciatus in proportion to its size, and the forehead is rough, uneven, and 

 a little convex. B. fasciatus is almost flat between the eyes, &c. The elytral band 

 or fascia in kamtschaticus is widened out in the middle, and Motschulsky's figure, 

 bad as it is, roughly represents the pattern, but the band in fasciatus is narrow. 

 There are other species in Dr. Hamilton's Catalogue which I shall refer to later if 

 my Japanese material ever gets worked out. 



In 1874 (Ent. Mo. Mag., x, 173) I attempted to draw out a list of species 

 " Common to Europe and Japan," but beyond the species, such as Corynetes rufipes, 

 Trogosita mauritanica, Carcinops pumilio, &c, species which are in all the Catalogues 

 and interest nobody, the list requires, small as it is, considerable revision. If I ever 

 try to compose a similar list I shall only include species I have myself examined and 

 identified, as I think any other system of working is likely to be without the proper 

 verification of the species, and therefore more likely to be misleading than useful. — 

 Qr. Lewis, 1. Queen's Ride, Barnes : September 27th, 1889. 



Parasites of Limacodes testudo. — Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher has bred from this 

 host both sexes of the rare Ichneumon Sphinctus serotinus, these issued toward the 

 end of September ; in the middle of July, 1887, he also bred a fine female of 

 Pelecystoma lutea. When the Rev. T. A. Marshall published his monograph of the 



P P 



