8 Mr. A. Murray's Monograph of the genus Catops. 



the point ; tarsi slender ; anterior tarsi widened in the males ; 

 middle tarsi simple in both sexes.'' 

 Velox and prcBcox (Spencers Wilkinii) are Erichson's only 

 species falling under this division. 



The last division has the '" 



" Mesosternum keeled; tarsi strong; anterior tarsi in the males 

 veinj broad, widened in the middle in the females ; middle tarsi 

 of both sexes equal" 



The only species recorded by Erichson is sericeus {truncatus, 

 Illig. and Steph.). 



The above list is instructive both negatively and positively, 

 both for what it does and for what it does not contain. Erichson 

 was celebrated not only for his marvellous acumen in distin- 

 guishing species, but also for his success in collecting and 

 for the extent of his collection. Mark Brandenburg too may 

 be taken as fairly representing the rest of Northern Germany ; 

 and unless where the species are of a local character, we may 

 pretty safely assume that the same species which occur in Mark 

 Brandenburg will be found in the rest of Northern Germany. These 

 premises should teach us to use great caution in admitting any new 

 species from that district not described by Erichson, as they lead to 

 the probable conclusion, first, that such new species might have 

 been already found in Mark Brandenburg; secondly, thatErichson 

 might have seen them ; and lastly, might not have considered 

 them distinct. Of course I do not make any further use of the 

 great weight of his opinion, than to bespeak caution in deter- 

 mining upon such new German species as he has passed over. 



Sturm next took up the group in his ' Deutschlands Fauna ' in 

 1839. He added two new species to the first group (Choleva) — 

 spadiceus, Dahl. in litt., and castaneus, Andersch. in litt. — both 

 of which have been adopted by subsequent authors, although, for 

 reasons which I shall afterwards give, I think the latter is only 

 a variety of angustatus. He also added the badius of Meg., the 

 brunneus of Knoch, and the anisotomoides of Spence to the list 

 of species found in Germany. 



In 1841 Prof.Heer (in his ^Fauna Helvetica') described besides 

 most of those already known, two new species, montivagus and 

 ambiguusy and reproduced the alpinus, Gyll. The descriptions of 

 the two former are too short and vague to allow of their being 

 satisfactorily identified from the book, and I have not seen 

 authentic specimens. M. Kraatz in his revision also states, that 

 he has been unable to make them out, but holds that the alpinus 

 of Gyllcnhal has been rightly revived. 



Several detached descriptions of individual species also ap- 

 peared from time to time. 



