THE ENTOMOLOGIST: 111 



approximation to one another in the two varieties than there 

 was in the two typical forms. Mr. Albert Muller remarked, 

 however, that what was regarded in Switzerland as the 

 typical form of A. Niobe did not possess the silvery spots on 

 the under side. 



Odour of Gall-Jlies. — Mr. Albert Muller read the following 

 extract from a letter received from Mr. H. F. Bassett, of 

 Waterbury, U.S.A., on the odour of Cynipidse : — " You speak 

 of the peculiar odour of certain species of European gall- 

 flies. A similar odour is strongly apparent in three sub- 

 apterous species of Cynips that I have reared from the galls, 

 namely, C. pezomachoides, Osten-Sacken, C. forticornis, 

 Walsh, and C. hirta, Bassett ; and I find that Dr. Fitch, in 

 the description of his Philonix fulvicollis, mentions that it 

 ' exhales a perceptible odour,' resembling that of ants or 

 bees. I do not remember to have noticed this odour in any 

 of the winged species I have reared." 



New British Beeetles, — Mr. G. R. Crotch sent for ex- 

 hibition British specimens of four species of Dasytidse ; one 

 being Dolichosoma protensa, taken some years ago in the 

 Isle of Wight, and agreeing entirely with Spanish specimens 

 taken at Carthagena ; the other three belonging to the sub- 

 genus Mesodasytes, and having a somewhat complicated 

 synonymy. The following note was read respecting them : 

 — " The old genus Dasytes has been subdivided by Mulsant 

 and Rey into five subgenera ; all our species, except the 

 rare D. niger, fall into the third of these, called Mesodasytes, 

 of which three species are described from France, all of 

 which are found also in England. Mulsant's nomenclature 

 is by no means in accordance with Kiesenwetter's, and he 

 seems not to have noticed Kiesenwetter's paper on the 

 Spanish Melyridae in the eleventh volume of the Berlin 

 Zeitschrift. Thomson again appears to be at variance both 

 with Mulsant and Kiesenwetter, so that the group is some- 

 what confused. The synonymy appears to me to stand 

 thus : — 



1. Dasytes oculatus, Kies. (1867) = coxalis, Muls. (1868) 



= plumbeus. III., Thorns, (nee MM.) 



2. D. plumbeus. Mull., Kies. = flavipes, Oliv., Muls. (nee 



Fab.) = fusculus. Thorns. ? (nee Kies.) 



3. D. plumbeo-niger, Goeze = asratus, Ste, = aerosus, Kies, 



