80 [April, 



It is the S. nier of Stephens, according to specimens still extant in 

 his collection (now in the British Museum), and is the S. aeratns and 

 aS'. (lie)' conihined of Fowler. It is certainly identical with S. reyi 

 Abeille, according to two examples from Sos, Lot et Garonne,- the type 

 locality, in Dr. Sharp's collection (also in the British Museum). Other 

 specimens of reyi determined respectively by Abeille himself and by 

 Keitter, in Mr. Champion's collection, confirm this identity. According 

 to the figure and description, aS'. piceae Germar (Faun. Ins. Europ., 

 fasc. X, 1825, No. 9) is also the same species ; at any rate, it cannot be 

 synonymous with castaneus Panz. as placed by Mulsant and the cata- 

 logues. Stephens introduced S. piceae as British in his " Manual," but 

 there is no specimen in his collection. It is therefore not possible to 

 determine positively w^hat he intended, but probably it was a form 

 of ater. 



The species is widely distributed in Britain, and apparently equally 

 variable wherever it occurs ; e. g. of two specimens from Aviemore in 

 Mr. Champion's collection, one is referred to by Fowler as being the 

 only British specimen he had seen " that appeared to be related to 

 the tj'pe of afer,'''' i. e. a small form with black legs, and a narrow 

 thorax, broadest close to the anterior margin, the other is normal 

 '•aeratus^^ (Fowler, nee Mulsant). Similarly, Mr. Champion has 

 specimens from Gomshall, Surrey, of the normal aspect, though one 

 has completely red legs and is of the form referred by him tentatively 

 to reyi (Ent. Mo. Mag. 1909, p. 249). It is noteworthy, too, that 

 the pair above referred to from Sos are comparable respectively with 

 Mr. Champion's pair from Aviemore. 



Two specimens of afer from Finland in Mr. Champion's collection, 

 ,one identified by Sahlberg, and the other by Reitter, together with a 

 third from Sweden in the British Museum collection, have the humeral 

 carina particularly plainly visible from above, a character relied on by 

 Keitter to separate afer from reyi ; but I am unable to differentiate 

 them otherwise from certain of the Woking examples. It is interesting 

 to note also that Sahlberg finds >S'. afer in Finland abundant among 

 burnt pines (Ent. Mo. Mag. 1916, p. 41), just as our form occurs at 

 AVoking and Bi'ockenhurst. In fully mature specimens the under side is 

 dark piceous like the up2Jer, but very commonly it is considerably lighter 

 in colour. The puncturation of the thorax is very variable, the punc- 

 tures sometimes being almost crowded, usually they ai-e fairly evenly 

 spaced with distinct intervals between them ; sometimes there is a 

 median line free of punctures quite strongly developed. The punctures 

 of the olyti-al striae A-ary in the same way : usually they are placed fairly 



