86 



DESCRIPTIONS OF THE BRITISH SPECIES OF STENUS. 

 BY E. C. BYE. 



{OonUnued from 'page 65.)* 



{^penultimate joint of tarsi siviple^ 



B. Abdomen unmargincd. 

 CEA.SSUS, {Kirhy) Stephens, III. Man. v., 287. 18 (1832), and coll. 



crassiveutris, Thomson (1857). 



nigritulus, Erichson (nee Gyll.) 



li — 1\ lin. Black, rather sliining, distinctly clothed with grey 

 hairs ; the legs pitchy-black, sometimes pitchy, and the basal joint of 

 palpi testaceous. Head almost level in front, with a shining middle 

 line Thorax rounded in front and narrowed behind ; strongly, evenly, 

 and not very closely punctured, with no dorsal channel. Elytra longer 

 than the thorax, and more remotely punctured ; the interstices flat. 

 Abdomen stout, narrowed towards the apex. The entire insect has a 

 somewhat inflated appearance. The male is smaller than the female, 

 with the elytra apparently stouter and more convex, owing to the 

 abdomen being smaller and more attenuate ; small examples of this sex 

 are superficially not unlike S.fornicatus. 



Generally found in comparatively dry places. Not uncommon at 

 Boston, Eepton, Bungay, Weston, and Brighton, and in the London 

 district. Bare in Northumberland. 



LiTTOBALis, Thomson, Skand. Col. ii., 226, 30. 



This insect (introduced originally as British by Mr. Gr. R. Crotch) 

 appears from Thomson's description (Joe. cit.) to be very like the pre- 

 ceding, but smaller, with the legs pitchy, and the punctuation closer 

 on the elytra, and thicker and stronger on the abdomen. It also seema 

 to be found in wet localities. Erichson notices the variation in size, 

 and in the colour of the legs of his nigritulus, with which species I 

 have no doubt that Thomson's insect is identical, having seen examples 

 (both large and small) of the former, wherein the punctuation difliers 

 in strength and closeness, and the legs are pitchy, or almost pitchy-red ; 

 these variations existing apart from each other. I find it also impossible 

 to separate the smallest crassus from the largest (so called) littoralis ; of 

 which, by the way, I have not yet seen a female example. 



In wet places in the London district, at Weston, and elsewhere. 



• Since publication of last number I have seen one of Mr. R Shepherd's examples of S. tcrutator, 

 which may be briefly described as very like S. luitrator, only with longer elytra. 



