106 [May, 



green. copi)cry, or mrely grey, by reason tliat tlie clothing of coloured 

 scales completely hides the black ground-colour. This form, which 

 occurs in both sexes, is clearly caestiis Marsh. (Ent. Brit, i, ]). 318, 

 1S02), as ampHHed by Stephens (111. Mand. iv, }>. 147, 1S31), and is the 

 only form described by Fowler in his " Coleoptera of the British Islands." 

 The scaling of the tdytra is quite uniform in colour for any given 

 example, but the specimens are not all alike in the natm-e of the scaling. 

 In the greater number the majoiity of the scales are oat-shaped (lanceo- 

 late-attenuate), but there are here and there patches of linear scales 

 little to much shorter than the former. In a com]jaratively few 

 examples all the scales are large and oat-shaped, and to these it would 

 appear that it was Schilsky's original intention to confine his name of 

 ab. densatus (Deutsch. Ent. Zeitschr. 1886, p. 95). Group 3 has the 

 elvtra dull black, bv reason that the clothing: of short decumbent hairs, 

 similar to those in the striae-punctm-es, is insufficient to obscm'e the 

 black sfround-colour. There are sometimes a verv few coloured scales 

 along the suture. This form, which is sometimes referred to as var. 

 nudus Westhoff, is not mentioned in Cox's " Handbook of Coleoptera " ; it 

 oecm's onl}'" in the female sex. The original description of calcaratus F. 

 (Ent. Syst. i, 2, p. 485, 1792) fits this exactly, and presumably on that 

 account it is sometimes called the stem-form. ; although it is a compara- 

 tively rare form confined to one sex only. Having regard to the 

 distinctive appearance in the field of these dull black females (a speci- 

 men which is bkck by reason of complete abrasion is quite sliiny, and is, 

 moreover, very rarely met with), it seems hardly likely that they would 

 be passed over by collectors as abraded examples and neglected in con- 

 sequence, and an esteemed colleague, the extent of whose experience in 

 the field is second to none, infoiTns me that he has never met with this 

 form. My own experience of it is as follows : — I have collected regu- 

 larly in this district since 1892 in a manner which would give an 

 approximately equal chance of taking it every year. My captures have 

 been 1898, 1902, 1906, 1908, one example each year, 1909, 1916, two 

 examples each year, 1917 twenty-one examples ; in the three years 

 following 1898, the three years following 1902, and in the six years 

 following 1909 I did not meet with it at all. Ever since the capture in 

 1899 of ab. caesius and calcaratus in cop. I have had a gi'eat desire to 

 know what the progeny of such a pairing might be like ; but for a long 

 time no reasonable ground for speculation on the subject presented itself. 

 The due appreciation of the difference between ab. maculatus and par- 

 tially abi-aded examples of ab. caesius, however, at once suggested a case 

 of inheritance to some extent comparable with that of the Andalusian 



