Hagen.] 258 [Feb. 3, 



nigra ; corpus supra coeruleo-fuscum) prove that the living ani- 

 mal was described, it can be supposed that the dimensions there 

 given are the correct ones and that the figure is less than of nat- 

 ural size. Long corp. pollicaris = 27mm. ; antennae 28mm. ; al. 

 ant. corpore longiores ; al. post, tri-pollic. =82mm. ; their length 

 to the first dilatation bi-pollic. = 54mm. 



Forskal collected his specimen in South Arabia at Beit el Fakih, 

 the celebrated coffee-mart a little north of Mocha. 



Olivier, Encycl. method, vin, 178, no. 3, describes as N. hal- 

 terata Forsk., a species common around Alexandria, Egypt. The 

 type, sent by himself, is still in the Berlin Museum and Klug, 

 Panorp., p. 94, no. 7, decided that it could not belong to Forskal's 

 species and named it therefore N. costata ; he remarks that he has 

 nothing to acid to Olivier's description. There can be little doubt 

 that this is the species figured in the Descr. de l'Egypte by 8a- 

 vigny, pi. 2, f. 14 (not 13) and later described, by Rambur, p. 

 337, no. 9, as Nemoptera (Brachystoma) Olivieri, the type of which 

 is in De Setys collection. To this species belongs probably the 

 larva Necrophilus arenarius Roux, Ann. Sc. nat., 1833, xxvm,pl. 

 7 and Schaum, Berlin Ent. Zeit. i, 1-9, pi. i, f. 1 ; types of the 

 larva are in my collection. 



Westwood, Ann. Mag. N. H., 1842, vin, 379, no. 14, under 

 N. Olivieri, long ago united N. halterata Oliv. and N. costata 

 Klug, but the latter name is six years older than Westwood's and 

 Rambur's. Westwood, 1. c, p. 378, no. 6, has separated Forskal's 

 species as N. Forskallii, but does not state why he changed the 

 name of Forskal's N. halterata ; he adds " nee N. halterata Fabr., 

 Oiiv., Dumeril, Klug." It is indeed somewhat surprising that Fa- 

 bricius' works contain only obvious errors about Forskal's spe- 

 cies. He mentions first in Gen. Ins. Mant., p. 245, no. 6, Panorpa 

 halterata ; although he quotes Forskal's description and figure 

 rightly, his description ("alis anticis flavo fuscoque variegatis" — 

 Forskal has "alis albidis") shows plainly that he cannot have com- 

 pared Forskal. As Fabricius at least in his first works described 

 only insects which he was able to examine himself, apparently he 

 had a specimen of N. sinuata, to which the quotation of Forskal was 

 added erroneously. This explains the words "statura et summa 

 aflSnitas P. Coae." Fabricius repeats the same in Species Insect., 

 401, no. 6, and in Mant. Ins., 251, no. 6, with the addition mera 

 varietas P. Coae, and unites finally both species in his Ent. syst. 



