﻿230 [March, 



upon an exhaustive monograph of the European Crypto cephalides, makes some 

 remarks (Ann. de la Soc. Ent, de France, 1869, is, p. 7) of which I add a trans- 

 lation, as being likely to interest British Coleopterists : — " My own observations, 

 "corroborated by those of several of my colleagues, and especially of Messrs. 

 " Eouget, Godart, Varin and Peragallo, lead me to regard Cryptocephalus bipustulatus 

 " (Fab.) as a species perfectly distinct from C. bipunctatus " (of which the British 

 C. lineola is unquestionably a simple variety, although the type-form has not yet been 

 discovered here. — E. C. R.). " The habitat of the two insects is not the same, and 

 " the ridges formed by the strise of the elytra are very much more evident, and 

 " form a sort of rugosity not found in Q. bipunctatus. It seems to me impossible to 

 " maintain the mistakes of the past upon this point." — Id. 



Note on the identity of Spanish and English species of Homalota.- -Mr. Crotch, 

 during his visit to the Asturias last summer, collected some specimens of the genus 

 Homalota ; and, with his usual kindness, has allowed me to make an inspection of 

 them. I find that they agree in most cases exactly with our British examples ; and, 

 except in one or two instances, could not be distinguished from my Scotch specimens. 

 The following is a list of the species.— H. labilis, Er , elongatula, Gr., decipiens, 

 Sharp, fungicola, Kr., merdaria, Th., boletobia, Th., cadaverina, Bris., fungi, Gr., 

 orbata, Er., picipes, Th., analis, Gr. (the var. major of my Revision), fusca, Sahl., 

 inquinula, Er., sordidula, Er., clientula, Er., nigra, Kr., volans, Scriba, boletophila, 

 Th. (not yet a British species, but I think sure to be found here), pygmcea, Gr. (the 

 dark var. found in Scotland), macrocera, Th., parva, Sahl., analis, var. ? This last 

 is the only one that presents a chance of being considered a new species. 



I have little doubt that the species of Homalota are very widely distributed in 

 Europe, and that their number will be found to be much smaller than would be 

 supposed from the large number of British species. Indeed, I have evidence that 

 two or three of Mr. Wollaston's species from Madeira are identical with our British 

 ones, though still known by different names. I will mention here that H. oblique- 

 punctata, Woll.=U. pavens, Er., and H. montivagans, Woll.=H'. pulchra, Kr. In 

 this latter case Mr. Wollaston's name stands. — D. Sharp, Eccles, Thornhill, Dumfries, 

 February, 8th, 1870. 



Further note on the parasitism of Aphodius porcus. — It appears that Aphodius 

 porcus is rather a scarce species ; and, several of my correspondents having asked 

 me for specimens, I made an attempt to find them at the beginning of August last. 

 With a view, at the same time, of further confirming the natural history of the 

 species, I determined to search for them before they had left the ' sausage rolls ' of 

 Geotrupes stercorarius in which they had been reared. I had, however, great 

 difficulty in finding the site of deposits of the previous autumn ; but, after some 

 failures, I discovered the remains of a burrow of stercorarius, the contents of which 

 were in a semi-pulverulent condition, and contained six specimens of A. porcus (one 

 of which I destroyed in my search) quite recently emerged from the pupal state, and 

 one or two of which I clearly found to be contained in a cavity or cocoon partially 

 framed of earth. I afterwards secured one more specimen, in another burrow, 

 and in several other burrows I found a few larvse, which, from size, &c, I suppose 

 to be those of porcus. These, however, I failed to rear. I have also found some 



