(Page 534) 

 their tibiae most often armed with a double row of spines, between which 

 the tarsi during the digging can be placed, at tip without incision; 

 midale tibiae with 1-2 rows of spine, the hindmost are haired at tip, 

 also often with a single spine; tarsi fine, 3-jointed, the claw-joint 

 longer than the two others together. 



Sex-characters occur in most of the species. Ordinarily the poste- 

 rior margin of the seventh ventral abdominal joint at middle more pro- 

 duced in the O than in the Q ; in many species the head or pronotum 

 of the tf is furthermore furnished with variously formed horns, or the 

 mandibles are more prominent than in the Q , or one of their teeth more 

 robustly developed and erect. 



The Bledius species are the moles of the Staphylinidae. Their body 

 le constructed and well fitted for digging (cf. Scaritlna . arouna-beet- 

 les). Both as larvae and beetles they live under the surface of the ground 

 digging their burrows in semi-damp, sandy and sandy-clayey brinks, in 

 tne surface of moist sand-plains and at the water edges of sea, lakes 

 and like places, and their burrows are easily discovered by the small 

 mounds and groovs which they root up; they most often live together in 

 flocks. (Page 535) These beet- 

 les are most nearly insects of the dusk, as they appear or fly about at 

 sunset time, especially on cosy summer evenings. The nourishment of 

 beetles and larvae consists (accd. to Dr. "'esenberg-Lund' s supposition) 

 apparently to some extent of certain (oilbearing?) small alga, which grow 

 in the sand; they, themselves are being chased by Dyschirius species, 

 which are found together with them. 



