40 ADEPHAGA. [AcupalpUS. 



probability it must be regarded as a variety of dorsalis, and perliaps as 

 a further connecting link between dorsalis and hrunnqjes.) 



BRADVCSIiZiUS, Ericbson. 



This genus includes upwards of fifty species, which are widely distri- 

 buted over almost the whole of the northern hemisphere, ranging from 

 Siberia, Kamtschatka, and Lake Superior to the Canaries and jNIadeira" ; 

 we possess as British the majority of the European members of the 

 genus. The Bradycelli proper are small Insects usually of a brownish or 

 reddish colour ; a considerable number of authors include in the genus 

 the species of Dichirotrichics, which however appear to find a better 

 position near Scyhalims : this is, however, a doubtful point, as the cloth- 

 ing of the underside of the tarsi in DicMrotrichus is partly pubescent 

 and partly squamose. They are found in damp warm localities, under 

 leaves and refuse on the banks of ponds situated in sunny places in 

 Avoods, &c., or in moist places on the sides of hills and cliffs, &c. 



The following table may be of some service in distinguishing the 

 species that belong to our fauna, but several of them come so close to 

 one another, and present such almost imperceptible gradations of form 

 and colour, that no table can be quite satisfactory, although it is not diffi- 

 cult to distinguish the species when once their differences have been 

 mastered. ]\Iany writers divide them into groujis by the presence or 

 absence of the short scutellary stria, but in B. collaris it is sometimes 

 plain, sometimes obsolete. Again, B. cocjnatus and placidns may be 

 nearly always known by the broader or narrower testaceous margins of 

 the thorax, but in many instances, especially in northern examples, the 

 thorax is quite black ; B. similis also has the suture, as a rule, very dis- 

 tinctly lighter, but this character is also sometimes absent in Scotch 

 specimens, and is to a slighter degree present in other species. B. similis 

 is our onl}'' type of the subgenus Tachijcdlus which has three basal joints 

 of the antennae glabrous (instead of two as in the other species), and the 

 intermediate tarsi of male very slightly dilated, but with traces of 

 squamae underneath. 



I. Length 4-t^ mm. 



i. Scutellary stria wanting ; colour pi tcliy or testaceous. 



1. Legs testaceous — thorax, as a rule, with margins broadly 



testaceous B. placidus, Gi/U. 



2. Legs pitchy black, tibiaj lighter — thorax, as a rule, with 



margins narrowly testaceous B. COGNATUS, Gi/ll. 



ii. Scutellary stria distinct ; colour more or less rutbus or 

 ferruginous. 



1. Posterior angles of thorax distinct and prominent . . B. distin'ctus, Dej. 



2. Posterior angles of thorax obtuse, but distinct at apex . B. verbasci, -D«/i{. 



3. Posterior angles of thorax rounded B. iiakpalinus, Dej. 



II. Length 3-3i^ mm. 



1. Upper side ferruginous; legs stouter; basal furrows 

 of thorax broader and shallower; antennae with two 

 basal joints at most glabrous B. COLLAKIS, Payk. 



