Insects, 



5929 



same manner as the thorax, but less strongly ; having a distinct sutural line, and of a 

 pitchy brown or black colour. Abdomen shining black, much dilated towards the 

 apex, especially in the female. Legs pitchy brown ; the trochanters and tibife more 

 or less rufescent ; tarsi testaceous. The male has the hinder edge of the sixth seg- 

 ment beneath slightly excised, and the seventh deeply channelled ; the excision and 

 channel smooth and shining. The seventh segment beneath, in the female, a little 

 produced and rounded. Length \ \ line. Fermaire remarks that this species is incor- 

 rectly referred to nodifrons in the Stettin 'Catalogue.' Judging from descriptions, it 

 appears to me to differ from that species in being larger, more coarsely punctured, 

 with the abdomen more dilated, and in having the anterior portion of the head smooth 

 and shining. Ten specimens taken beneath rejectamenta on the shore of Tain Frith, 

 Ross-shire, September 14, 1857. — Thomas John Bold ; Long Benton^ Neivcaslle-on- 

 Ti/ne, November 28, 1857. 



Capture of Lcemophlceus Ctematidis near Gravesend. — In June last, when searching 

 the Clematis Vilalba, a few miles below Gravesend, for Tomicus bispinosus, I cap- 

 tured a single individual of an insect unknown to me ; but on my showing it to Mr. 

 Janson, who was collecting with me, that gentleman pronounced it Laemophlaeus Cle- 

 matidis, a species new to our British list. He immediately set to work to obtain more, 

 and after nearly two hours' hard labour succeeded in capturing two living and four or 

 five dead specimens. I find that in his paper in the ' Entomologist's Annual ' for 

 1858, on new British Coleoptera, he has omitted all mention of my name when no- 

 ticing this insect, and, as I am naturally anxious to be recorded with himself as one 

 of the original captors, I am induced to trouble you with this short note. Every one 

 must deplore the unhappy, and I might almost say scurrilous, spirit in which the intro- 

 ductory remarks to his paper are written. Surely Mr. Stainton ought to have exer- 

 cised bis duty as an editor in expunging them. However gratifying to the self-love 

 of the author, they cannot fail to be off"ensive to the many, and must tend to the dis- 

 paragement of our science in the eyes of those who hope to pursue its study as a relief 

 from the many cares and strifes of daily life. — JS. Baly ; Kentish Toivn, December 

 22, 1858. 



Preservation of Colour in CassidcB. — On looking lately over some foreign beetles 

 in a bottle of spirits, I found many specimens of a fine Cassida, which had retained 

 their splendid metallic markings, although they had probably been in the spirits seve- 

 ral years. When I set some of them, in a few days, all that remained of their former 

 brilliancy were dark markings, something like what you sometimes see in portraits 

 where the artist had freely used white paint. When I took out my drawer containing 

 the English specimens of Cassida nobilis, splendidula, &c., their colour resembled 

 that of a seared leaf; and the thought struck me that their metallic beauty might be 

 preserved by being placed, when freshly captured, in a fluid in one of the glass slides, 

 which contain a well (so called), used for microscopic subjects. I think it would be 

 worth a trial, as the coleopterist would be well repaid, if successful, in having his spe- 

 cimens of Cassidae preserved in their pristine beauty. — W. H. L. Walcott ; 11, 

 Vyvyan Terrace^ Clifton, December, 16, 1857. 



Myrmecophilous Coleoptera captured in the Neighbourhood of Plymouth. — Thiaso- 

 phila angulata, Eric, 20 specimens; Dinarda dentata, Grav. (new to Britain), 3; 

 Atemeles paradoxus, Grav., 3; A. emarginatus, Payk., 7; Myrmedonia humeralis, 

 Grav., 4 ; M. funesta, Grav., 6 ; M. laticoUis, Maerk., 10; M. canaliculatus, ivz/>., 

 common; Oxypoda formiceticola, AIaerk.,2; Homolota flavipes, Eric, 5; H.anceps, 

 XVI. L 



