1018.] 155 



Chrysomelidae. — The genus Haltica presents a very interesting 

 field of inquiry. The difficulty of discriminating species in it is well 

 known, so that recourse to the male structures has frequently been 

 made. In Britain, however, males are often i*are. H. ericeti is a 

 species to which I have paid particular attention, and though it is 

 rare, I have been able to examine about 100 specimens, all of which are 

 females. In the species we call paliistris Weise, I have not been able 

 to obtain a male for my collection. In //. hrUteni the male is rare in 

 comparison with the female, and this is the case, I believe, with some 

 other species of the genus. 



Staphylinidae. — Amisclia analis is one of the most abundant of 

 the Coleoptera in Britain. Some 3'ears ago I wished to examine the 

 male characters, so I went to my collection, and found that the indi- 

 vidual I made the type of the male sex, when I described the British 

 species of Homalota, fift}^ years ago, bore a label querying its sex. 

 When I became doubtful as to this point I cannot now recall; but 

 I set to work to examine specimens to settle the point, but all 

 A. analis, and the other species of that group of Amisclia, prove to be 

 females. Males are readily found in the cavifrons group (where the 

 species are all i*are), but in the profusely abundant analis all are females, 

 the specimens with a larger notch on the penultimate dorsal plate being 

 all females of other species which are passing among us as males of 

 S. analis ! The spermatheca of the female is easily found in this 

 genus, and as I have dissected some hundreds of specimens I have no 

 doubt as to the gynarchy of this section of the genus Amiscka. 



These notes, it will be observed, refer to some of the most abundant 

 species of British Coleoptera, and it would therefore appear that partheno- 

 genesis is, in the long run, favom-able to a species. Why, then, do males 

 exist ? An answer to this question cannot be given till much more is 

 known of the physiology of sex than is at present the case. 



Brockenhurst. 



JunelTth, 1918. 



ATOM ARIA ZETTERSTEDTI Zett. { = SALICIC0LA Kkaatz), A BRITISH 



INSECT. 



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



iNlr. J. Collins, of the Hope Department of the University Museum 

 at Oxford, has recently sent me for determination a number of examples 

 of an Atomaria found in sallow catkins in that district, calling attention 

 to the well-marked characters of the male. The insect is undoubtedlv 



