G8 ADEPHAGA, [Ahax. 



(Sub-Gen. Abax, Bonelli.) 



P. striola, F. Broad, depressed, oblong, almost rectangular, 

 apterous, shining black, female somewhat duller ; head large, antennas 

 with the first three joints black and glabrous, the rest fuscous and 

 pubescent ; thorax quadrangular, slightly narrowed in front, not narrowed 

 behind, posterior angles right angles, lateral margins broad and thickened, 

 disc strongly -wrinkled, central furrow deep, interrupted in front and 

 behind, base with two very deep and distinct oblong foveas on each side ; 

 elytra broad, almost parallel-sided, rather broader at shoulders than base 

 of thorax, deeply striated, seventh interstice raised at base into a keel, 

 and other interstices raised at apex ; legs pitchy black, tibiae and tarsi 

 with red set^e. L. 16-19 mm. 



Common and generally distributed throughout England and Ireland ; Scotland, 

 rare, Lowlands. 



It will be found that many of the black Pterostichi are rather hard 

 at first to distinguish, but it is very easy to make out several of the most 

 difficult by the male characters, whicli are very distinct. When we 

 remember that the male may at once be known by its dilated tarsi, it is 

 easy to see that the absence of any distinguishing character on the anal 

 segment (e.g. in vulgaris and gracilis) is quite as conclusive as the pre- 

 sence of a distinct ridge or tubercle. 



AMARINA. 



This tribe has by many authors been included under the PterosHcldna; 

 it is, however, best regarded as separate ; the character of the labial palpi 

 (which have the terminal joint shorter than the penultimate, which iS 

 pluris'etose in front) will serve to distinguish its members from those of 

 the preceding tribe, from which, as a rule, they are entirely different 

 in contour and general appearance, and, in many cases, in habits. 



AMARA, Bonelli. 



This genus (taken in its widest sense as including its several sub- 

 genera) contains a large number of species which are almost entirely 

 confined to the northern and temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and 

 North America. We possess twenty-six species as British, of which 

 no less than twenty-two are recorded from Scotland. When Ave find 

 that out of our thirty-one species of Harpali only eight have been as 

 yet found in that country, we are led to infer that the range of Amara 

 is more boreal than that of Harpalus : this, however, must not be 

 pressed too far, as we find thirty-four species of Amara recorded from 

 Scandinavia, and no less than twenty-three species of Harpalus. 



The larva and pupa of A. convexiuscida ayc figured by Schiodte (iii., PI. xxi., Fig. 7). 

 It is long and convex, with the head rounded and depressed, narrower than the pro- 

 thorax, which is transversely hexagonal and margined j the head is dark ; all the 

 dorsal scuta are yellowish ; the anal appendage is rather stout and the cerci short 



