100 May. 



CIONUS LONGICOLLIS, CH. BRISOUT : AN ADDITION TO THE 

 BRITISH LIST. 



BT G. C. CHAMPION, F.Z.S. 



I am indebted to Mr. James Edwards for calling my attention to 

 Clonus thapsus and its allies, as by so doing he has enabled me to add 

 G. longicollis, Ch. Bris., to the British list. The insect is a close ally 

 of C. tJiapsus, Fabr., but, as stated by its describer [Ch. Brisout, in 

 Grenier's Cat. Col. de France, p. 114 (1863)], it is more elongate, 

 the rostrum is thicker, the thorax is longer, with the sides less oblique, 

 and the sutural spots on the elytra are larger. I may also add that 

 C. longicollis is a larger and more robust insect than G. thapsus, with 

 stouter legs and rostrum, the latter (as in G. thapsus') roughened 

 and pubescent nearly to the apex in both sexes ; this last-mentioned 

 character separates G. longicollis from C. hortulanus, Fourcr., which 

 has the distal half of the rostrum smooth and shining in the female. 

 My specimens of G. longicollis were given me many years ago by Mr. 

 H, Moncreaff, who found them at Portsdown Hill in 1871. This adds 

 yet another species to the list of discoveries of that most successful 

 entomologist. Mr. MoncreafE's specimens were, I believe, determined 

 as G. thapsus, Fabr., by the late Mr. Crotch, or by Mr. Rye, and have 

 since done duty for that species in my own and other collections, 

 Brisout's examples of G. longicollis were obtained at Yernet, in 

 the Pyrenees Orientales, upon Verhascum, and the species also 

 occurs in the Alps. I have to thank M. Louis Bedel for identifying 

 the Portsdown insect for me, and also for comparing it with Brisout's 

 types. As M, Bedel remarks, G. longicollis has probably been con- 

 fused with G. thapsus. The species is not mentioned in the " Fauna 

 des Coleopteres du Bassinde la Seine," nor in the Rev. Canon Fowler's 

 British Goleoptera. Mr. Edwards informs me that he has taken both 

 G. thapsus and G. hortulanus at Colesborne, Gloucestershire, the 

 former upon Verhascum nigrum and Scrophularia nodosa, the latter 

 upon Scrophularia aquatica and S. nodosa. These two species are, 

 perhaps, about equally common as British, and I have taken specimens 

 of both in various localities in the south. The only Gionus I met with 

 at Vernet (the original locality of G. longicollis) in 1891 was G. 

 hortulanus. Mr. Moncreaff in a letter just received states that his 

 specimens were taken off a plant of Verhascum thapsus growing in 

 an old roadway at Portsdown in 1871, and that he has not met with 

 it since. 



Horsell, Woking : 



April I8th, 1894 



