310 On Aquatic Carnivorous Coleoptera or Dytiscide. 
medio infuscato, elytris nigro-suffusis, lateribus, fascia obliqua basalii alteraque 
ultra medium ad suturam interruptis, testaceis; antennis extrorsum infuscatis. 
Long. 4, lat. 24 m.m. 
The marks of the elytra vary somewhat in this species, the pale marks on them 
being sometimes much reduced; when the undulated dark marks are very 
confluent it is only by opening the elytra that the undulated yellow spaces 
separating them can be traced. The male has the front and middle tarsi a good 
deal incrassate, and the last ventral segment is much produced in the middle; and 
in the female the form of this part differs comparatively little from the other 
sex. 
Europe ; Corsica. Not common, and in the North altogether wanting; extends to the South of 
England. 578. 
156. Laccophilus flexuosus, Aubé. M.C.—Ovalis, minus latus et convexus, 
nitidus, testaceus, prothorace anterius et posterius in medio brevissime infuscato ; 
elytris lineis flexuosis duplicatis minus confluentibus, ad basin et ultra medium 
plus minusve interruptis nigris. Long. 4, lat. 25 m.m. 
This species is closely allied to Dytiscus variegatus, Germ. (No. 155), but is a 
little larger, and the dark colours of the upper surface are less extensive so that 
the lines on the elytra are more distinctly separated: these marks are however 
variable, being sometimes so much reduced that the elytra appear pale ; generally 
there are pale marks left at the base and before the apex similar to those of 
Dytiscus variegatus, but in some specimens the dark lines are very little interrupted, 
and then the pale spots alluded to are correspondingly reduced: the under surface 
is nearly always pale, but occasionally the breast and ventral segments are infuscate. 
The male has the front and middle tarsi a good deal incrassate, and the apical 
ventral segment is but little produced in the middle. In the female this segment 
is produced in the midale, and oblique, and a little sinuate on each side: but in this 
sex the sexual characters are instable, sometimes the form of this segment is 
different on the two sides, the sinuation being then very deep on the right side, 
while the left remains as usual; the structure of the epipleurz of the elytra is 
subject to much variation in this sex, for in some individuals the inflexed portion 
of the wingcase becomes broader before the apex, and is then deeply impressed, 
while in other individuals, it does not depart from the form that exists in the male. 
The variation of the epipleurz appears to occur throughout all the area in which 
the species is found; but the females with the peculiar unsymmetrical last ventral 
segment, I have only found to occur in the western part of the area of distribution. 
Widely distributed in Asia, from Mesopotamia to Japan: Persia, Northern India, Sumatra, Hong 
Kong, Formosa. 579. 
