﻿I860] 159 



abundance in the salt marshes at Dumfries, also near Edinburgh, at Brighton, and 

 at Weymouth. B. tricomis I have never found but on one occasion, viz., at Deal, 

 in the spring of 1863, when I had the pleasure of taking it in some numbers 

 during a collecting expedition, in which I was accompanied by Mr. Frederick 

 Smith and his son Mr. B. A. Smith. I imagine, therefore, from my own experience, 

 that the greater portion of the B. tricomis of our British collections will be found 

 to be B. spectabilis, Kr. The two species, though exactly alike in point of colour, 

 are easily enough distinguished when the males are examined ; for B. spectabilis is 

 considerably the larger of the two, and more sparingly punctured on the thorax 

 and elytra, and its male has on each side of the head a short pyramidical elevation, 

 which can in no sense be considered a horn; while in B. tricomis this elevation is 

 replaced by a short but distinct horn. When these characters have been per- 

 ceived in the male sex, the females of the two species are easily separated by the 

 differences in size and punctuation. 



The synonymy, as given by Dr. Kraatz (quite correctly, I believe), runs thus : — 



tricomis, Herbst, 01., Kr. 

 tricomis, Er. (Col. Marck.). 

 nuchicornis, Muls. 



spectabilis, Kr. 



tricomis, Er. (Gen. et spec). 



tricomis, Muls., Fauvel. 



As far as M. Fauvel is concerned, I have verified the synonymy by sending him 

 a specimen of B. spectabilis, taken by me in Scotland, and obtaining from him its 

 name as B. tricomis. What the insect is that he understands as B. spectabilis I 

 have no idea (neither, judging from the above synonymy, has Kraatz) ; but it would 

 be interesting to know. — D. Shakp, Eccles, Thornhill, Dumfries, Nov. 10th, 1869. 



[My own short series of B. tricomis, from Deal, is apparently correctly named. 

 But I find next to them three specimens, obtained lately from Mr. Brewer, solely 

 on account of their large size, and taken by him on the Norfolk coast, I believe, 

 which are evidently B. spectabilis. In addition to the characters mentioned above 

 for that species, I observe that in these three the thoracic horn of the <? is much 

 longer than in tHcomis ; the thorax is less bulky in proportion to the elytra, with 

 the sides rather straighter, the contraction behind not quite so rounded, and two 

 irregular smooth discal spaces, starting from each side of the middle line and 

 directed backwards, much more elevated and decided than in tricomis ; and the 

 black colour of the elytra more confined to the base. It will be observed, that, in 

 this larger insect, the frontal horns exhibit a diminution of size, so that it cannot 

 be considered a more highly developed form of tricomis. — E. C. R.] 



Occurrence in Britain of Myllcena glauca, Aube". — Some time ago, I took in 

 Sphagnum, on Wimbledon Common, a Myllcena, which I could not satisfactorily 

 refer to any of our recorded species, and whioh so distinguished an authority in 

 that genus as Mr. Matthews also failed to identify. Hoping to be able to name it 

 after that gentleman, I sent it for examination to M. A. Fauvel, who returned it 

 as M. glauca, Aube, which M. Fauvel has recently, in ' L'Abeille,' identified with 

 M. elongata, Kraatz. Subsequently to this determination, Dr. Sharp has observed 

 to me that the elongata of Matthews is specifically distinct from Kraatz' s subse- 

 quently described insect of the same name j remarking that the former is common 



