On difference in shape of thorax in sexes of Hydroporus elegans, ^c— I have 
lately noticed that in the ? of Hydroporus elegans (depresses, Fab.) the thorax is 
widest towards the front, with the sides strongly rounded and much contracted 
behind, whilst in the $ the sides are comparatively slightly (sometimes scarcely 
perceptibly) rounded, the thorax in a few instances being even widest behind. This 
posterior dilatation is especially conspicuous in all my dark vars. of the species in 
question, all of which are males. I find, however, some ? examples of the dark 
var. amongst a number of the insect recently sent to me by Mr. Bold. These were 
taken in a small Cumberland lake, called " Talkin Tarn," and present a somewhat 
different facies to ordinary brook specimens, being larger, proportionately longer, 
and altogether darker in tone. Schaum, Ins. Deuts., 1, p. ii, notes that the Swedish 
specimens are commonly longer than the German, with the black colour pre- 
dominating ; and abandons his former idea that these might be referable to a 
distinct species. I do not observe any similar sexual thoracic discrepancy in 
the allied H. 12-pustulatus, Davisii, assimilis, &c. ; nor can I find any record of 
the fact, as to H. elegans, in Gyll., Aube, Redt., Fairm., Schaum, or Thomson, all 
of whom state the thorax to be strongly rounded at the sides. The latter author, 
in his Skand. Col Supplement (IX, p. 75), simply notes the very elongate, unequal, 
anterior claws of the <? ; in which sex the anterior and intermediate legs are, also, 
moi-e robust. With regard to the dark var. above mentioned, I notice a curious 
error in Aube's Gyr. et Hydroc, 507, where he states that the ordinary testaceous 
spots sometimes disappear, and are replaced by testaceous lines,—" ce qui constitue 
la var. b. de Gyllenhal." But Gyll., Ins, Suec, i., 526, thus indicates his var. b.— 
" elytris pallidis, nigro-lineatis," and " elytra pallida, lineis quatuor disci nigris,'*' 
— a form which has not come under my notice in this country. Schaum, 1. c, says 
that the black sometimes predominates, the yellow forming mere lines ; the insect 
then being Gyll.'s depressxis. The form in which the yellow predominates he refers, 
to elegans, 111. 
In Lwmophloeus, of which the sexual thoracic difference of outline is well 
known, it is the <? that has the thorax most contracted behind. This, I presume,, 
is due to the fact that the head, as frequently happens in Coleoptera, exhibits au 
excess of development in that sex, and requires a propoi-tionate widening of the 
front of the thorax for its reception. The latter segment thus seems to be much 
narrowed behind, though in fact its posterior part is of the same outline as in the 
? .— E. C. Rye, 7, Park Field, Putney, S.W. 
Habitat of Epurcea — Illiger, Verzeich. der Kaf. Preuss., 383, notes the freqnent 
capture of Epurwa limbata by Kugelann, under bark of apple and pear trees, in 
company with Synchita juglandis. The former insect is not uncommon with us in 
fungi ; but, knowing, as we do, the parasitic habits of certain of its congeners 
(e. g., E. angustula on Xyloterus, E. oblonga and pusilla on Hylastes, &c.), this record 
of association may not be altogether without interest, especially as the Synchita is 
of such great rarity in this country. — Id, 
Occurrence of Rhynchites megacephalus, Qerm., in Japan. — I was rather sur- 
prised to find among some Rhynchophora from Japan obtained by me from Mr. 
Higgins, of Bloomsbury Street, specimens of a Rhynchites which I am unable to 
