I 137 



» 4. Honialota vilis, Erichson. 



6. Homalota picipes, TAomso/i. Aiheta,T^\c\pes, Thorns. Shandinav. Coteopt. iii. 81, 

 30. H. fusco-femoraia, Waierh. MSS. 



6. Homalota aiigusticollis, Thomson, Ofo. af. Vet. Ac. Forh. 1856, 100, 22. Alheta 

 aiigiislicoUis, Thorns. Skandinav. Coleopt, iii. 87, 38. 



The following notes, having reference to some of the above-mentioned species, were 

 communicated to the Meeting : — 



" Homalota vilis, Erichs., and H. picipes, Thorns. Of each of these two species I 

 have seen but a single specimen. The insects were captured (by myself, I believe), 

 long since, but their localities were not noted down. Of course with such scanty 

 material I should wish my determinations to be looked upon with some doubt. As 

 there already existed a species of Homalota bearing the name 'picipes' before 

 Thomson applied the name to the insect above noticed, I have substituted the name 

 * fusco-femorata ' for this insect. 



" Homalota flavipes = Halobrectha'flavipes, Thoms.^= Homalota maritima, Waterh. 

 MSS., and a nearly allied species H. puncticeps, Thorns. More than four years since 

 in examining my specimens of Homalota I distinguished two species as belonging to 

 Dr. Kraatz's third section of this genus, both of which are found under rejeclamenta oa 

 our sea-shores, and both are remarkable for having the head strongly punctured. They 

 have, moreover, the fore parts of the body pretty densely clothed with pubescence. 

 One of these insects is extremely like H. occulta, but has smaller antennse. It is black, 

 and has the antennae, palpi and legs more or less piceous; the antennae without any 

 perceptible paler colouring at the base; the legs, with the tarsi, the knees, and the 

 tips of the tibiffi, usually more or less testaceous. The head is very nearly equal in 

 width (and indeed in total bulk) to the thorax, the sides subparallel, and" with the eyes 

 small and not prominent; the upper surface convex, thickly and distinctly punctured, 

 the crown presenting usually a more or less distinct fovea (perhaps in the male sex 

 only). Thorax subquadrate, very little broader than long, the hinder part distinctly 

 rounded; the sides (which are furnished with two or three setse) parallel and very 

 indistinctly rounded ; the surface thickly and distinctly punctured; in some specimens 

 (males?) with a large oblong shallow fovea on the disk; in others a faint small fovea 

 behind. Elytra depressed, about one-fourth broader than the thorax, and nearly half 

 as long again (as in H. occulta), very densely crowded with punctures, and hence dull. 

 Abdomen glossy, with the basal segments rather sparingly punctured ; the fifth seg- 

 ment very sparingly, and the sixth almost impunctate j the apex more or less piceous. 

 Posterior tarsi short. 



" This insect is clearly the Homalota puncticeps of Thomson = Halobrectha puncti- 

 ceps of his 'Skandinaviens Coleoptera,' iii. 49, I.* It also agrees perfectly with a 

 specimen from the shore of the Baltic, sent by Dr. Kraatz to the British Museum as 

 his H. puncticeps. But it does not agree with the insect named by the same authority 

 in my own collection, nor in that of Mr. Wollaston. The description given by Hardy 

 of his H. AlgaB evidently belongs to this species, but he notices a variety (" diluiiora, 

 antennis fusco-ferru^ineis, basi, ore, pedibus anoque lestaceis ") which apparently is 

 the insect next about to be noticed. The specimen alluded to by the same author as 



* The original description, published by Thomson in the ' Transactions of the 

 Academy of Sciences at Stockholm ' for 1852, I have never been able to consult. 



