5722 Insects. 



Anthicus ater, Steph. [nee Panz.~\, III. Brit. Ent. v. 74 (1832). 

 „ „ Steph., Man. Brit. Col. 341 (1839). 



Deep black, shining, more or less densely clothed with a fine, decumbent, 

 cinereous pubescence, and rather coarsely punctulated all over, — the punctures on the 

 prothorax, however, being smaller, and those on the head somewhat less numerous, 

 than elsewhere. Head large and square posteriorly, — its hinder margin being almost 

 straight, — and with a tolerably distinct central line. Elytra sub-parallel and im- 

 maculate. Antennae at base, tarsi and generally the tibiae more or less ferruginous; 

 antennae at apex obscurer. 



The present little Anthicus, which is abundant at the Chesil Bank, near Weymouth, 

 has been the subject of a good deal of confusion, as regards its synonymy. By both 

 Stephens and Curtis it was referred to the ater of Panzer, from which, however, it is 

 totally dissimilar, — the latter species being immensely larger, of a different form and 

 sculpture, much less pubescent, with its feet alone ferruginous, and peculiar to 

 Northern Europe. By Dr. Schaum, when he was in England, in 1847, it was in- 

 advertantly identified with the fenestratus of Schmidt; but, as he had not a specimen 

 of Schmidt's insect with him at the time to compare it with, it is not surprising 

 that he should have since altered his opinion concerning it. Having been lately 

 examining the Anthici, with particular reference to the determination of an allied 

 representative which abounds on the mountains of Madeira, and which I had supposed 

 to be identical with the British one, and not feeling satisfied that either of them was 

 precisely coincident with the fenestratus of Mediterranean latitudes, I communicated 

 afresh with Dr. Schaum on the subject, and have received from him typical examples 

 of the fenestratus, collected in the South of France. The result is, not merely that 

 the English and Madeiran species have been proved to be distinct from the fenestratus, 

 but also distinct inter se, and moreover (as it seems to both of us) new, being 

 apparently undescribed in Laferte's monograph ; and the former of them I have 

 therefore great pleasure in now dedicating to him. It recedes from the fenestratus in 

 being more shining, of a much deeper black, and quite immaculate, there being no indi- 

 cation of a paler humeral patch (though the silvery pubescence with which it is clothed 

 does occasionally cause the shoulders, from their prominence, to seem just perceptibly 

 lighter than the rest of the surface) ; in its elytra being a little more parallel at the 

 sides (or less oval), and with scarcely any appearance of the postmedial impressed line, 

 on either side of the suture, which is there so broad and conspicuous; by the punctua- 

 tion of its head and prothorax being less dense, and much better defined (there being 

 no admixture of the elevated points or granules, which so thickly beset those parts in 

 that insect); and by its limbs being of an obscurer hue. It used to occur in pro- 

 fusion beneath stones on the Chesil Bank ; but I have not myself observed it in any 

 Other locality. — T. Vernon Wollaston. 



Chrysomela cerealis. — On the 5th inst., during a long hunt on the Llanberis ascent 

 to Snowdon, accompanied by one of my boys, he had the good fortune to find two 

 specimens of this beautiful beetle (male and female) under separate stones. We also 

 found elytra and fragments of at least three other individuals, all confined to a small 

 space below the road over the west side of Glyder, a little above the latter. The 

 various species or reputed species of Geodephaga proper to the locality were in great 

 plenty, with the exception of Carabus glabratus, of which we did not see any trace, 



