ON BRITISH CISSID BEETLES. 83 



6. — 1. The C'oleoptera of the Fainily Cissidse found in 

 Britain, with Desci'iptions of two new Species. — 

 2. A new Species of the (^^oleopteran genus Cryptor- 

 rhynclivs Illioer. By C. J. C. Pool, Assistant (Jurator 

 Caird Insect House *. 



[Received February 6, 1917 : Read February 20, 1917.] 



Index. tj 



Page 



1. The Coleoptera of tlie Family Cissidse found in Britain ... 83 



Introduction 83 



Table of Genera and Species 84 



Notes on Characters and Distribution, witli Description 



of New Species ; 86 



2. A new Species of the Coleopteran Genus Cryptorrliynclms 



Illiger 93 



Introduciion. 



It is well known that since at least the time of that eininent 

 French entoniologist the AhLe Latreille (1806), the Order 

 Coleoptera has been divided into major groups superior to 

 families, which have been based principally on affinities in the 

 form and character of the antennae, or on the number of tarsal 

 joints. 



These groups constituted, as they have been, diiferently by 

 different authorities and known by different names, present 

 anomalies difficult to reconcile or explain. 



The family Cissid?e Mellie (1848), which forms the subject of 

 these notes, is in its morphology one of the most anomalous of 

 these coDstituents. 



It was included by the British authority Marsham (1802) in 

 the genus Ptimis L., and by Stephens (1839) in the family 

 Bostrichidfe Leach, and close to Anohium F. 



Thus the family maintained its position in the works of sub- 

 sequent British authorities among the Teredilia or Serricornia, 

 of which -such genera formed part. 



In the latest general European list (Heyden, Reitter, and 

 Weise, 1906), the Cissidfe have been placed after the Myceto- 

 phagidas among the Clavicornia, and as that arrangement has 

 been followed by the most recent list of the British Coleoptera 

 (Newbery and Sharp, 1915), I propose to adopt it here as well as 

 the specific nomenclature of the family there used. 



The Cissidfe are f ungivorous, and may be found in various kinds 

 of Boleti and Polyj)ori on old trees and logs. 



Very few species are attached to any particular kind of fungus. 



A piece of Boletus from Godalming once produced no less than 



* CommunicKted by the SECEETiBT. 



6* 



