﻿56 BRITISH BEETLES. 



semi-saline marshes; and the Anchomeni — mostly gre- 

 garious, small, and of elegant shape — frequent very wet 

 spots, abounding at the roots of old willows, etc., near 

 watercourses. One of them, A. sexpunctatus, is found 

 in boggy places on heaths, sometimes being plentiful on 

 Wimbledon Common ; it is about a quarter of an inch 

 long, with its head and thorax very bright green, and wing- 

 cases coppery-red with green margins (Plate II, Fig. 2). 

 It is a most brilliant creature, and darts about in the 

 hot sunshine over the wet peat, looking like a live coal. 

 A great contrast to this elegant insect is afforded by 

 the heavy hippopotamo'id Zabrus gibbus, whose broad, 

 convex, black carcase may sometimes (especially near 

 Brighton and Croydon) be found trodden on, in the 

 paths of cornfields. It has been accused of devouring 

 wheat, owing in all probal)ility to its having been seen 

 on or near that plant, where its instinct leads it to 

 pursue vegetable-feeding insects. Allied to this species 

 is the giant Broscus, an opaque black, elongate monster ; 

 with large head, and thorax contracted behind : it is 

 found rarely inland, but abundantly on the coast, where 

 it burrows under stones and tidal rubbish, devouring 

 ruthlessly everything that comes in its way, even its 

 own species. Lastly, Miscodera arctica, a near but 

 small relation to the above savage, dwells on our highest 

 moors and mountains, and is but rarely taken. It is 

 very shining and entirely brassy, with its globose thorax 

 and dilated elytra separated by a neck. The two last- 

 mentioned genera have much the appearance of Dys- 

 chirius in the Scaritida ; from which the dilatation of 

 the basal joints of the front tarsi in the males, and the 

 want of a tooth on the outer side of their anterior legs, 

 will serve to separate them. 



