male in Suffolk several years since ; but as the characters have 

 not yet been published, I have endeavoured to supply them 

 until the completion of that work. Its natural situation ap- 

 pears to be between Bledius and Oxytelus^ to which it is united 

 by the spined tibiae and uncommon length of the last joint of 

 the tarsi. In most insects, as well as in the higher orders of 

 animals, where the males have horns, the females have only 

 tubercles, or are entirely destitute of those ornaments, as in 

 the present instance : they not only add much to their beauty, 

 but are very serviceable in defending themselves against their 

 enemies, as well as giving them a decided superiority over the 

 other sex. The coloured figure is a male, drawn in perspec- 

 tive, to show better the horns upon the head, which makes it 

 appear rather more narrow than the life. 



Whether the specimen represented in the Plate is the same 

 species as that figured by Mr. Kirby I cannot positively de- 

 termine, although I have the original drawings for the Intro- 

 duction to Entomology in my possession: but from the bright- 

 ness of the colours, and the want of foveolas upon the thorax 

 of my specimens, I considered it at first another species, and 

 had called it. *S. corticalis. 



Dr. Stephenson having taken a male at Kensington, and 

 directed me to the spot, I had the pleasure of finding 2 males 

 and as many females in March 1823 under the bark (of a 

 felled tree), where it adhered the firmest; and during the 

 summer of that year, Mr. Denny, I am informed, found a 

 pair in Norfolk. From its short legs and flat form it is en- 

 abled to lie very close under the bark, and did not appear to 

 be very active at the early period of the year when I captured 

 it. 



Mnium hornum (Thread Moss), figured with the insect, is 

 masfnified about four times. 



