1 823i] Doctrine of Affinity and Analogy, 421 



rales, minus prominentes, subrotundi. Isiasm declivis, apice 

 ttans versus. 



Ttuncus. Thorax transversus, aiitice angustior, sinu lato prd 

 recigptione capitis excise ; lateribus rotundatis raarginatis : 

 margine explanato recurvo ; angulis anticis et posticis rotunda- 

 tis. Prosternum et mesosternum linearia. Metasterrmm antice 

 et postice mucronatum. Scutellum triangulare. Elytra oblonga 

 latere exteriori marginata: margine subrecurvo, apice obtusis- 

 sima, vei oblique subtruncata : epipleura lineari apud basin 

 elytri dilatata. Pedes breves : femoribus magnis compressis ; 

 tenuioribus; tibiis calcafibus 2. 2. 2. ; anticis intus ante medium 

 emarginatis : tarsis subsetaceis ; articulo penultimo integro : un- 

 guiculis binis simplicibus. 



Abdomen depressum : segmehtis ventralibus sex ; tertio reli- 

 quis longiori ; anali obtusissimo. 



Catascopus merely assumes the aspect of a section different 

 from that to which it really belongs, v^^hile every one sees at first 

 sight that it is one of the Carahi of Linne ; but the insect I have 

 now described, though it exhibits the characters, has not the 

 aspect, of that tribe ; and even a practical entomologist, if he 

 chanced to examine a specimen that had lost its antennae, might 

 at first regard it as a Nitidula or Ips F., or as coming near thai 

 genus in the system. But when he came to study it in detail, 

 he would discover, to his surprise, all the essential diagnostics of 

 one of Latreille's Entomophagi, as six palpi,^^' and the trochanter 

 forming a fulcrum to the posterior thigh ; and further, those 

 that distinguish the Carahici of that author, the same kind of 

 labium, mentum, and maxillce, and particularly the remarkable 

 notch in the inside of the anterior tibia, before noticed, pecufiar 

 to them. The characters that give it an air and general appear- 

 ance unlike those of its tribe, are its sessile wide head received 

 into the thorax, and its short antennae and legs. 



It is difficult to say to which of Latreille's sections of his 

 Carahici it bears the greatest affinity. Its depressed body, its 

 elytra very obtuse at the tip or subtruncate with an epipleura 

 dilated at the base, and its blunt anus, seem to indicate an 

 approximation to Lebia, Dromius, &c. and the labial palpi are 

 not unlike those of one sex in Tarus Clairv. (Cymindis Latr.) 

 belonging to the same section ; but its sessile head brings it 

 nearer to Scolytus Fab. the labium of which is not very dissimi- 

 lar, and to the aquatic Entomophagi. Its thorax is shaped very 

 much like that of Hydrophilus caraboides. Its maxillary palpi 

 are unlike those of any other entomophagous genus yet known. 

 Many links, however, remain to be discovered before we can 

 connect this remarkable and puzzling genus with any one at 



* What has been accounted by Fabricius and others as an additional or inner maxil- 

 lary palpus is, strictly speaking, the outer or upper lobe of the maxillae become palpl- 

 form. In Staphylinus, &c. this lobe is also biarticulate but not palpiform. 



