; 
RECLASSIFICATION OF SUBFAMILY AGRYPNINAE 17 
Wittenburg (formerly the University Zoological Museum, Halle) and the BMNH 
(see below). Dr Diekmann of the DEI, Eberswalde and Dr Hiising of the ZIMLU, 
Halle-Wittenburg both write that there are no specimens of ovalis Germar in their 
collections. 
Candéze’s (1857 : 132) statement that he received material of ovalis from the 
Germar collection ‘en communication’ [? = loan] from Schaum suggests that at 
the time the type-material of ovalis was in Schaum’s possession. However the 
ovalis material does not appear to have been included in that part of the Schaum 
collection which was acquired by the BMNH, as there are no specimens in the 
collection and the species is not listed in the BMNH manuscript catalogue of the 
Schaum collection. If Candéze (see below) did return the ovalis material to Schaum, 
it must have formed part of that portion of the Schaum collection which has been 
lost (see p. 280). 
If, either by accident or design, Candéze retained the ovalis material he received 
from Schaum, it should have passed to the BMNH or the IRSNB, Brussels (see 
p. 271). Neither collection contains any specimens determined as, or which 
could be, ovalis Germar. The species is not recorded in Waterhouse’s manuscript 
catalogue of Candéze’s Elateridae in the Janson collection in the BMNH. 
Since the most careful and repeated searches through the relevant collections 
have failed completely to discover the type-material of Elater ovalis Germar there 
is no alternative but to accept the fact that, almost certainly, the material has 
been lost or destroyed. 
At first sight the loss of the type-material of Elater ovalis Germar, together with 
the fact that no determined specimens of the species can be found (see also p. 21), 
appears to make it impossible to draw up a generic diagnosis of Adelocera. How- 
ever I believe that the evidence produced by the study of the literature is sufficient 
to justify the use of the lectotype of Lacon occidentalis Candéze for this purpose. 
THE DIAGNOSTIC FEATURES OF Elater ovalis GERMAR. Germar’s (1824 : 49) 
Elater ovalis is a dark-coloured beetle with reddish legs and antennae. Germar 
describes it as follows [translated from the Latin by CMFH]. ‘The round head is 
pitchy black in colour and deeply sunk into the prothorax which is strongly 
emarginate anteriorly. The prothorax is the same colour as the head but the 
_ lateral margins are paler; it is convex with the lateral margins arcuate and slightly 
convergent anteriorly; the posterior margin is straight and the posterior angles 
more or less right-angled. The elytra are convex, as broad as the prothorax and 
twice as long, the apex rounded. The head is closely punctured, the prothorax 
closely and sparsely punctured and the elytra punctate-striate with convex 
interstriae. The prothoracic pubescence is grey and the elytra bear squamiform 
setae which arise from the punctures. The underside is black and coarsely and 
closely punctured. The serrate antennae are accommodated in grooves on the 
| underside of the prothorax, which also bears deep, shiny, angled depressions for the 
reception of the anterior legs’. Germar does not record the length but states that 
it is ‘shorter, but not narrower than E£. ripario’. Germar does not mention 
E. npario in his 1824 publication. His first reference to the species (as E. riparius 
B 

