Q [January, 



I have seen only four specimens. Two males and a female have 

 been standing in my series of frumentarhim for many years, and I 

 liave no localit}" for them. The fourth specimen, from Shirley Warren, 

 Southampton, I have lost by an unfortunate accident. 



I may here notice an example from Arran in which the dorsal seg- 

 ments are of a rather dirty yellow colour. I believe it will prove to be 

 another species, as the aedeagus is extremely slender, especially the 

 apical part. 



5. — Erythrapion fommentarium Payk. 



This name includes several forms, some of which ma}^ be good 

 species. Its diagnostic characters in Britain are the black dorsal plates 

 of the abdomen and the long perfectly developed wings. In our country 

 it is distiiact from criientatum Walt., and from desideratum^ described 

 above. Schilsky and Wagner have, however, failed to distinguish them 

 on the Continent. 



The rostrum is short, stout, curved, in the male about as long as 

 the thorax, in the female a little longer; in the female the eyes are a 

 little shorter in front and rather more prominent than they are in 

 the male. 



The thorax is slender, a little broader at the base than at the front 

 margin, and slightl}" swollen across the middle. In each sex the length 

 of the neck is about equal to that of the eye. 



If all the individuals I assign to it are really one species (as to 

 which I have some doubts) it is decidedly variable. Large females have 

 a distinctly longer and more coarselj' punctate neck ; but the sexual 

 differences in these pai'ts are decidedly variable.* This renders it easy 

 to make a mistake as to the sex in some cases, but a reference to the very 

 different shape of the abdomen in the two at once removes this difficulty. 



^ The median lobe of the aedeagus is long and slender, almost pointed 

 at the tip but with a minute incrassation there ; the struts are rather 

 long, quite half the length of the body of the lobe ; the cap-piece of the 

 tegmen is but little elongate, and its cilia seem to be very minute. 



The species is fairly common from the north of Scotland (Nethy 

 Bridge) to the south of England. It occurs on Teucrium scorodonia as 

 well as on Humex acetosella. 



* Spcakiii;,' of A. spencei, WallDn says " the iiromineiice of tho cyo, and consequent narrowness 

 of the iorehead varies cojiaiderably in both sexes, but surpriBin^ly so in the lemaie," lint. iMag. v, 

 1837, p. 13, 



