396 STAPHYLINIDA. 
at the outer side of the thorax, serves as a mark to indicate whether the lateral raised 
margin is deflexed to the underside of the thorax or not. In treating the genus for the 
present work I have, however, been obliged to place in it, as did Erichson, a considerable 
number of species in which the lateral raised margin being much deflexed is distant 
from the lateral seta; to have done otherwise would have necessitated the creation of 
several new genera, and could not, in fact, be properly carried out without making a 
complete revision of the exotic as well as the European forms. The species in our 
fauna are numerous, and to facilitate reference I have grouped them according to 
Erichson’s method of arrangement, by which those agreeing in the number of punctures 
in the two dorsal series of the pronotum are placed together; and asa matter of con- 
venience I have adopted Erichson’s nomenclature and numeration of the groups, though 
one or more of these is unrepresented in our fauna. The genus Belonuchus was accepted 
by Erichson as distinct from Philonthus, though with some hesitation, on account of the 
spinose femora; but this is a very unsatisfactory character, being in many species con- 
fined to one sex; it has occasioned me much trouble, and has induced confusion in the 
case of other writers. Some further remarks on this will be found in the pages dealing 
with Belonuchus; but I must here mention that I have been obliged to include in 
Philonthus certain species in which the hind femur of the male bears a single series of 
spines, and that in the corresponding sex of the species of Belonuchus the femur is 
always armed with two series of spines. 
§ 1. Thorax punctorum seriebus dorsalibus nullis. 
1. Philonthus crassulus. (Tab. XI. fig. 1.) 
Minor, rufo-brunneus ; capite thoraceque fusco-rufis, elytris ad latera abdomineque ante apicem parum discrete 
fusco-maculatis, antennis pedibusque testaceis ; prothorace levigato. 
Long. 63 millim. 
Hab. Mexico, Las Vigas (Flohr), Guanajuato (Sallé). 
This is a very distinct little insect. The antenne are short, with the last seven joints 
transverse. The head is small, very shining, the mandibles short. The thorax is small, 
narrowed in front, and is remarkable by its shining surface free from punctures even on 
the disc and at the margins. The elytra are about as long as the thorax, rather finely 
and not closely punctured, of a reddish colour, with the suture dark and an indistinct 
dark mark on the side. The hind body is densely, very finely punctate, and the three 
terminal segments have some indistinct dark marks along the middle. 
This species, like several others without thoracic punctuation, has a Quedioid 
appearance, and the upper marginal line of the thorax scarcely at all inflexed to the lower 
surface at the front angles. The male has the front tarsi moderately dilated. The 
pair of the species in Sallé’s collection was labelled ‘Philonthus rufescens, E. Dugés.” 
