1808. J 



11 



under the bark of a dead oak tree, and seems to be very rare, for, 

 though we carefully examined the greater part of the same tree, we 

 were unable to find a second specimen. 



In my present notice I shall only give a summary of the characters 

 of these species, as the time must soon arrive when they will be de- 

 scribed at greater length. To them I will also add the diagnostic 

 characters of a genus, which I have separated from Ftilium, to contain 

 the following species, viz., Pt. transversale, Erichson, Ft. concolor, 

 Sharp, and Ft. coarctatum, Haliday ; these all differ widely from Ftilium 

 in every anatomical detail ; the most obvious distinction exists in the 

 base of the thorax, which is not, as in the true Ptilia, fitted to the 

 shoulders of the elytra, but overlaps and lies upon them, so as partly 

 to conceal the scutellum. It is not unlikely that the name of the last 

 of these three, Act. coarctatum, will have to be altered ; in 1855 Mr. 

 Haliday described this species, in the Dublin Natural History Eeview, 

 p. 124, under the name of Ptilium coarctatum, and in the same year, 

 M. Thomson described it, in the Ofvers. af Yet. Acad. Forhl., p. 339, 

 under the name of Ptilium elongatum ; the priority must therefore be 

 determined by the month of publication, and this I have not yet been 

 able to ascertain : that the names are merely synonyms of a single spe- 

 cies there can be no doubt, for M. Thomson has very kindly sent me 

 his unique example of elongatum for comparison, and it is specifically 

 identical with Mr. Haliday's type of coarctatum. 



This species is another remarkable instance of eccentric distribu- 

 tion ; it was discovered almost simultaneously by Mr. Haliday in 

 Ireland, and M. Thomson in Sweden, and has subsequently been taken 

 by M. Aube on the shore of the south of France, and by Col. Mots- 

 chulsky in Egypt. As I have made this species the type of the new 

 genus, I have termed the latter Actidium, in reference to its habits ; its 

 allies, though not strictly littoral, are found amonoj sand and gravel on 

 the margins of rivers and lakes. 



TmcHOPTEBTx AifTHKACiNA, Matthcws, Eut. Mo. Mag.,ii, 35, 1865. 



L. c. lin. Ovata, maribus postice valde attenuata, valde con- 

 vexa, nigra, nitida, pilis brevibus argenteis parce vestita, capite modico, 

 antice elongate, oculis sat magnis, prominulis ; pronoto modico, valde 

 convexo, postice dilatato, tuberculis sat magnis, ordinibus irregulariter 

 sinuatis confertim dispositis, interstitiis nitidis, subtiliter reticulatis, 



