348 M. W. R. de V. GRAHAM 



cJcJ, $$, 29. vi. 1962 ; Oxfordshire, Marston Ferry, $$, $$, 19.vi.1961 ; Otmoor, 1 ^, 

 6.vii.i962. I have also captured males and females in other localities, but the sexes 

 not taken together in these cases. 



Biology. Unknown. The species, identified as graminea Hal., whose morphology 

 and biology were described by Kutter (1934 : 16-62) was not graminea, but chalybea 

 Haliday (q.v.). I have captured imagines of graminea (agg.) in the field from June 

 to August. 



Pirene varicornis Haliday 



Pivene varicornis Haliday, 1833 : 337, q* $. 



Corynocere deplana Nees, 1834 : 123, $. 



Pirene varicornis Haliday, 1841-1842 : vi, pi. N, fig. 3, $ <j>. 



Pirene varicornis Haliday, 1844 : 296, <J $. 



Pirene varicornis Haliday ; Thomson, 1876 : 189-190, q* $. 



Pirene varicornis Halliday ; Dalla Torre, 1898 : 216. 



Pirene varicornis Haliday ; Ferriere, 1934 : n §- Ie - 



Type material. Pirene varicornis Haliday. Syntypes as follows : BM(NH) : 1 $, 

 5 $ ; the females are all mounted on one octagonal card, bear a green label " vari- 

 cornis " in Haliday 's handwriting and on the lower surface of the card (in pencil) 

 " 567 " ; I have selected and marked one female as LECTOTYPE. Haliday coll. : 

 several males and females, but only 4 are labelled varicornis (two pairs, bearing my 

 serial numbers 1 and 7). 



Corynocere deplana Nees. Amongst Westwood's MSS. there is a small sheet of 

 paper with some pencil sketches of the holotype $ of deplana (now lost). The 

 sketches comprise an enlarged figure of the whole insect ; one of the antenna on a 

 larger scale, against which Westwood has written, with a bracket pointing to the 

 first three segments of the funicle " I am not sure whether there are 3 or 4 jts here 

 Haliday says 4 " ; also a sketch, to the same scale, of the antenna, copied from Nees' 

 own drawings (" fm. Esenbeck's drawings "). At the bottom Westwood has written 

 " Corynocere deplana Esenb. 2. 123 [Pirene Hal. Ent. Mag. 1. 337] drawn from 

 Esenbeck's unique specimen ". From these figures I would say that deplana could 

 only have been a female of Pirene varicornis Haliday. 



The hind tibial pecten in the male and female of varicornis much resembles that of 

 the corresponding sexes in chalybea (q.v.). 



Britain, Ireland, Sweden ; probably widely distributed in Europe. In the 

 British Isles it is fairly common although the male, as Haliday remarked, is rare. 

 I find it most abundantly in damp meadows. 



Biology. In BM(NH) there is a female varicornis reared in Southern Sweden, in 

 1936, from Contarinia tritici (Kirby). Haliday (1833 : 338) said that the female 

 could be found commonly on the flowering panicles of Anthoxanthum. Imagines 

 June-July. 



