Bide.-'SUS.] ADEPIIAOA. 105 



ii. Klvtra ratlicr flat with woll-inaikcd yellow aud black 



lijiiiilg B. MIXPTISSIMUS, Oenn. 



II. Sutural stria prolonged to a])ex of elytra ; elytra dark 



with a broad waved band towards base B. GExriXtJS, F. 



S. unistriatus, Schr. {parvidus, raiiz., hLsiiIcatiis, Steph.). Oval, 

 pitchy, fuscous, or rufescent, thorax rufescent with anterior and posterior 

 margins dark, very finely and thickly punctured, with a strong stria on 

 each side of base which is continued on elytra ; elytra thickly punctured ; 

 antennse fuscous, base ligliter ; legs ferruginous. The male has the 

 front and middle tarsi distinctly dilated ; there are two forms of the 

 female, one dull, the other shining like the male ; the colour is very 

 variable, sometimes being entirely obscure red with suture darker, some- 

 times nearly black with margins of elytra and an obscure interrupted 

 fascia at base pale ; the thorax, however, appears to be always more or 

 less red. Long. 2, lat. 1 mm. 



Very rnre. Cambridge (Brewer); Southsoa (Moncreaff) ; Devonshire (SteplhMis) ; 

 Norfolk (Crotch); occasionally near London (Hamlet Clark) ; Suffolk (W. (Jarneys ; 

 one specimen in winter with snow on the ground) : it appears usually to occur 

 sini:ly. 



B. minutissimus, Germ, {trifasciatus, WoUast.). The smallest of 

 the ]^ritish Dytiscidae ; elongate oval, rather depressed ; head reddish 

 with base darker, antennae with fuscous apex ; thorax narrow, testaceous, 

 with a strong stria on each side at base which is continued on elytra to 

 middle ; elytra parallel-sided, testaceous, with .suture and three transverse 

 bands dark, very finely punctured ; legs testaceous. Long. If, lat. 

 1 mm. 



Originally reputed as British on the authority of specimens said to be taken by 

 Sir. Char in rivers mar Cork, and described by Mr. WoUaston ; these, however, 

 appeared afterwards to have had a continental origin ; Mr. aud ^Irs. Wollaston sub- 

 se(|uently discovered the species among the small submerged shiugiC at the v(\gQ of 

 Sb'ptoM Ley, about seven miles to the westward of Dartmouth, Devonshire, in shallow 

 char water, about the year 18^8 : it has been taken in the same locality within the 

 last three or four years by Mr. Bridgmau, of Burton-on-Trent, but has not, 1 believe, 

 occurred elsewhere iu Great Britain. 



S. g-eminus, F. Oval, not very shining, rather flat, finely pubes- 

 cent ; head brownish, antennae testaceous, apex fuscous; thorax reddish 

 on disc with anterior and posterior margins darker, with a stria on each 

 side of base, which is only continued on elytra for about the same 

 distance as on thorax ; elytra very finely punctured, dark, with apex aud 

 a broad irregular band near base yellow ; legs testaceous, posterior tibiie 

 fuscous at upex. Long. 2^, hit. \\ mm. 



Ponds and ditches ; not uncommon in the London district, Woking, VVimbledon. 

 Lee. Earlswood, &c. ; common in sballow muddy water in the feu district* (Wickeu 

 and Burwell Fens, &c.) ; rarer turlher north ; said to have occurred in Yorkshire ; 

 Northumberlaud district, Gosforth, very rare ; not recorded from Scotland; Ireland, 

 near Belfast. 



HYPHVDIiUS, llligcr. 



This genus comprises at jiresent about twei.ty-fnc' speciis, all fidm 



