46 THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S REOORD. 
GYOLEOPTERA. 
Notes on the genus Meloe. 
By the Rev. THEODORE WOOD, F.E.S. 
As I have been fortunate enough to meet with five out of the seven 
British species of Meloé, a few notes on this genus may, perhaps, be of 
service to other coleopterists. 
1. M. proscarabaeus.—This is the only species of the genus which 
can be considered as at all common. It is plentiful in most districts 
in March and April, sometimes abounding on grassy banks. I have 
seen it running about in the hot sunshine on the clift-side overlooking 
Pegwell Bay, with an activity almost weird ina Meloe. The next 
. species is the only one with which it can by any possibility be con- 
fused, and from that its even thorax and deep bluish-black colour will 
at once distinguish it. Its variation in size is extreme—from 12mm.- 
42mm. A well marked variety (var. cyanews, Muls.), with purplish 
head and thorax, finer punctuation, and the base of the thorax almost 
straight, is found in the Isle of Man, and has also been taken near 
Birmingham by Mr. W. G. Blatch. 
2. M. violaceus, Marsh.—Local, and seldom common. It may be 
recognised at once by its bright blue or violet-blue colour, and by the 
deep transverse impression at the base of the thorax, which looks as 
though it had been deen dented while soft by the thumb-nail. I have 
taken it at Baldock, in Hertfordshire; on the wooded slope overlook- 
ing Brothers’ Water, near Ullswater; and on the high road between 
Inversnaid and Loch: Katrine, in Scotland. Canon Fowler, in his 
British Coleoptera, gives ‘‘early spring’ as its time of appearance. 
My own specimens, however, were taken between May 15th and July 
5th, and I have even heard of its capture in August. In both this and 
the preceding species the antennz of the male appear to be deformed, 
the sixth and seventh joints being dilated, compressed, and bent some- 
what strongly inwards. 
3. M. autumnalis, Ol.;-Very rare. I have never met with the 
species, and know of no recent captures. Stephens gives Dartford, 
Exmouth, and Tavistock as localities, and Dr. Power took it at Cam- 
bridge, while Newman records it from Ramsgate. It is quite a small 
insect, never seeming to be larger than the smallest examples of M. 
proscarabaeus, and appears, as its name implies, in autumn. 
4. M. cicatricosus, Leach.—A fine, sturdily built insect, with a large 
triangular head. The colour is black, with a slight tinge of blue; the 
head and thorax are coarsely punctured, with the interstices rugose, 
and the elytra are closely set with flat shining tubercles. It is very 
local, and as a rule is decidedly scarce, although Mr. Champion once 
met with it near Ramsgate in great profusion. I have taken about 
twenty specimens in all in the cuttings in the cliffs near Margate on 
warm sunny days in March and the early part of April. It is useless 
to look for it unless the sun is brightly shining. It has also been 
taken at Southend, Dover, and Deal. 
5. M. variegatus, Donov.—One of our rarest and quite our most 
beautiful species. Its home seems to be in the Isle of Thanet, the 
only locality outside that district being Dover, where it has been taken 
by Mr. C. G. Hall. Stephens recorded it from Thanet, but it then 
disappeared until March 1882, when I met with three examples close 
