, Insects. 1865 



Schaum, who is now in London, obligingly called my attention to its specific charac- 

 ters : I hope to publish a detailed description in the September ' Zoologist.' — Edward 

 Newman. 



Remarks on three New British Coccinellida:, together with Descriptions of two of them. 



Coccinella labilis. Mulsant, Col. de France, iv. Coc. 7-punctata, Var. rj. Steph. 

 Illust. (Mand.) iv. 380. — Length 3£ to 4£ lines: black: head with two irregu- 

 lar cream-coloured blotches between the eyes, and a small streak of the same below 

 them: thorax with a large cream-coloured patch on each anterior angle: elytra red, 

 the two combined, with seven black spots, placed one basal and common, one very 

 large on each elytron on the back near the suture, a small one towards the middle of, 

 and near the outer margin, and a large one near the apex. Beneath with four large 

 white spots,placed one on each anterior angle of the mesosternum, and one at each 

 posterior angle of the metasternum, the latter spot united to a white space at the base 

 of the abdomen. The anterior edge of the thorax is sometimes whitish ; and the ely- 

 tra have occasionally a small additional black dot on the shoulder. The two first 

 coxae have sometimes each a white spot in front. — Upon hunting over my various col- 

 lections (containing Coccinellidae), as I am forming some twenty-five or thirty illustra- 

 tive ones, exemplifying metamorphoses, history, &c. of the useful or destructive insects, 

 I have mustered up seven examples of the new British Coccinella, C. labilis, but which 

 does not appear to me identical with the C. magnifica of Zeigler, — Redtenbacher, p. 24, 

 whose specific character is " Nigra, coleoptris totis rufis, maculis quinque magnis nigris: 

 prima scutellari communi, subrotunda, secunda in medio cujusvis elytri juxta sutu- 

 ram transversa, tertia subrotunda ante apicem." By which it would appear that 

 there are only five spots on both elytra combined ; whereas our insect has seven. In 

 his description of C. 7-punctata, he says, "Coleoptris rufis, angulo scutellari flavo 

 punctisque quinque nigris: primo scutellari communi subrotundo, duobus intra 

 marginem cujusvis elytri et duobus in medio utrinque juxta suturam, humerali 

 nullo." The spots, therefore, on Redtenbacher's magnifica and his 7-punctata must 

 differ in number, whereas in labilis and 7-punctata they agree ; the white spots on the 

 breast seem to point out a good character for identifying the new species. I 

 think there are two or three specimens in the British Museum collection, placed there 

 by myself in 1816, when I arranged my own Coccinellidae and the Museum collection 

 to correspond, thirty-one years since. This insect is said to occur on the common 

 asparagus. 



Scymnus fiavipes, Illig. Col. Bor. i. 413. — Somewhat hemispherical: shining black, 

 with the mouth, antennas, and legs, entirely luteous-red. (Length 1 line). Of 

 this species, hitherto unrecorded as British, I have detected several examples in my 

 collection, taken by myself near London. 



Scymnus minimus.— A few days since I observed the leaves of an almond-tree in 

 my garden to be perforated thickly by the attack of some insect, and upon looking over 

 them I found them swarming (if the term may be allowed) with the pupae of this 

 species, of which I have reared many specimens. The debris of a minute coccus ap- 

 pears upon the leaves. 



Plan for an Entomological Journal. — The circumstance of my examples of Coc- 

 cinella labilis and Scymnus flavipes not having any tickets of locality attached, induces 

 me to call attention to a simple method of keeping a journal of captures and additions 



