Docophorus bassance, D., and Lipeurus staphylinoides, D. 249 



To any one going over the latter material, the justice of Denny's remark 

 as to the variability of bassance is evident. But it seems clear, on detailed 

 examination, that the mature form to which the juvenile (and typically 

 bassance) stages lead up is simply the female of pullatus. 



One or two points in support of this conclusion may be noted. 



1. No one apparently has seen the male of bassance. 



2. As regards the female, Denny has figured an adult which might stand 

 for the known female of pullatus. Piaget figures the immature stage of 

 bassance, and naturally finds that the genital marks are indistinct. 



3. As regards pullatus, Piaget, who figures the terminal segments of the 

 female, makes no remark as to the frequency or infrequency of the occurrence 

 of this sex. Denny says that the female of his staphylinoides is so rare 

 that he has seen one example only. Possibly his identification of the 

 sex was erroneous. More probably, as it seems to the writer, Denny, 

 having taken as the type of staphylinoides a male in which the abdominal 

 bands were continuous, 1 looked for a similar female to match it. The usual 

 females, with two quadrate spots on each abdominal segment, being left 

 unaccounted for, were correctly attributed to the younger stages and became 

 D. bassance. 



4. The chsetotaxy of the head (to take one special region), so carefully 

 detailed by Piaget, reads in the case of pullatus practically as in bassance. 

 There is given for bassance one temporal spine less than for pullatus. But 

 undoubted bassanm in this Perth material show the spine not noticed in 

 Piaget's description. 



5. Most Docophori have a fringe of hairs on the posterior margin of 

 the metathorax, while many species of Lipeums show a fascicle of long 

 hairs rising from a single or double pustule at the postero-lateral angle. 

 This fascicle is pronounced in pullatus and is found also in bassance. 



6. Piaget speaking of bassance makes a significant remark. " Les pattes 

 par suite de leur insertion au bord du thorax et par la plus grande longuer 

 du trochanter, rappellent par leur confirmation celles des Lipeuri." But 

 he takes no further step. No more material seems to have come into his 



1 Piaget, as noted already, makes this a var. of pullatus. But it may also be an old 

 stage of the type. In the Christmas Island material referred to, there are adults of both 

 sexes with the abdominal bands divided and others with them all entire. Various grada- 

 tions occur, and the more continuous are the bands the darker is the coloration, so that 

 specimens with no trace of a median furrow on the abdomen are almost black. Two Lipeuri 

 closely related to pullatus occur commonly in Scotland, viz., L. brevicornis, Denny, and L. 

 longicornis, P. They are found respectively on Phalacrocorax graculus and P. carbo. In 

 both species the females, when newly adult, show on the abdomen a broad, clear median 

 space which darkens afterwards so that the segments show a band divided into three 

 quadrate spots, by two narrow lines. 



