662 On Aquatic Carnivorous Coleoptera or Dytiscide. 
1032. Dytiscus leander, Rossi, Hydaticus leander, M.C.—Ovalis, rufo-testaceus, 
vertice nigro, elytris creberrime nigro-irroratis, irrorationibus versus suturam 
coalescentibus, pectore, abdomine pedibusque posterioribus ferrugineo-obscuris ; 
tarsis posterioribus robustis, marginibus postice parum longe ciliatis. Long. 11, 
lat. 6 m.m. 
In the male of this species there are no fringing hairs round the heel of the front 
tarsus, and the basal palettes are hardly any larger than the others: the female 
has no peculiar sexual sculpture. 
‘This species is often placed in collections among the species of Rhantus ; although 
it bears a great resemblance to those insects in colour, size, and form, it may be 
readily distinguished by the ciliation of the posterior margins of the hind tarsi. 
It varies somewhat in size and colour; in the eastern part of its area, the thorax 
seems usually to be entirely red, and only a small part of the sutural area of the 
wing cases is rendered quite black by the coalescence of the dark irrorations ; in the 
south of Spain the individuals are of smaller size, and the thorax is black at the 
base in the middle, and the predominance of the black colour over the red on the 
wing cases is greater; the differences are not important and individuals from 
Corsica are generally intermediate. H. fusciventris, Reiche, (Ann. Fr. 1855, p, 639) 
from Palestine, is I believe also a variety of D. leander. 
Southern Europe, and Northern and Western Africa ; and Madagascar. (Nice, Corsica, Italy, Egypt, 
Nubia, Abyssinia, Algeria, Senegal, Portuguese Guinea, Gaboon). 1013. 
1033. Hydaticus ponticus, n. sp.—Ovalis, breviusculus, ruto-testaceus, vertice 
breviter nigro, elytris creberrime nigro-irroratis vel vermiculatis ; tarsis posterioribus 
robustis, articulorum ciliis vix longis. Long. 9, lat. 5 m.m. 
The male has the fringing hairs round the heel of the front tarsus rather well 
developed, the basal palettes though not large, are distinctly larger than the others : 
the female has short obsolete impressions on the lateral parts of the thorax. 
The species differs from Dytiscus leander by its smaller size and shorter form, 
and by the developed fringing hairs of the male tarsi; it 1s also closely allied to H. 
rhantoides (No. 1036), but is considerably shorter in form, and the black irrorations 
on the elytra are denser and more confluent, and the ciliz of the hind margins of 
the posterior tarsi, cover a very much smaller part of their area. It is still more 
closely allied to the variety found in India and Ceylon of H. fabric (No. 1035) 
but it is considerably smaller, shorter in form, the surface is less shining, and the 
wing cases appear of a much blacker colour, owing to the greater confluence or 
condensation of the black irrorations. 
Mesopotamia, 1012. 
