408 NOTES ON NEW AND RARE LOCAL BEETLES. 



that this insect was only T. cenea. (There are in the Stephens 

 collection of Coleoptera in the British Museum two specimens, 

 which are simply anea, marked Marsham's types, and stand- 

 ing under the name bicolor). 



Gyllenhal, in his " Insecta Suecica," vol. i., p. 205 (1808), 

 gives a full and accurate description of a species of this genus, 

 which he states to be Marsham's bicolor, but there is little 

 doubt that he never saw any of Marsham's types, and from 

 this mistake of Gyllenhal has arisen the whole confusion. 

 Gyllenhal's description fits accurately the insect we are dealing 

 with, and in most of the European works up to the present the 

 species has been ascribed to him as the first author to give a 

 true and recognisable description. 



Stephens, in his "Illustrations of British Entomology 

 (Mandibulata)," iii., p. 89 (1827-35), copied Gyllenhal's 

 description, and thus made it appear that he had taken 

 steps to confirm Gyllenhal's supposition that his bicolor was 

 Marsham's, but he did nothing of the kind. All three speci- 

 mens in the Stephens collection, as was pointed out by Mr. 

 G. R. Waterhouse* in his Catalogue of British Coleoptera 

 (1861), were incorrectly named, two being cBnea'\, and one 

 lacordairei, and it is the neglect by some of the Continental 

 authorities of the clear and explicit statement of Mr. Water- 

 house, which has perpetuated right up to the present the con- 

 fusion in the synonymy of this insect. 



. Lacordaire, in his "Monograph of the Erotylidae" (1842), 

 deals with the genus Triplax on pages 202 to 218. He 

 ascribes bicolor (p. 215) to Gyllenhal, and states that 

 Marsham's and Stephens' bicolor were synonymous with it ; 

 he evidently followed Gyllenhal in this matter. 



Bedel, in " L'Abeille," for 1868-9, "^o^- v., p. i, published a 

 Monograph of the Erotylidcc of Europe, North Africa, and 

 Western Asia. In this monograph he ascribes Marsham's 



* At the request of Prof. HudBon Beare, Mr. 0. 0. Waterhouse kindly re- 

 examined these three specimens, and he absolutely confirms their identification 

 with (xnea and lacordairei. 



t Stephens 6ays('. c), "I possess a pair from Marsham's collection, and I once 

 beat a single example from a birch tree in Coombe Wood in June." 



