76 COLEOPTERA. 



20. Leptacinus formicetorum, Maerkel in Germar, 



Zeitschr. f. d. Entom. iii. 216, 19 (1841). 

 Found by myself in nests of Formica rufa at Hampstead 

 and Highgate, and, I believe, taken likewise by Mr. Water- 

 house, with the same ant, near Erith. 



21. Quedius brevis, Erich. Gen. et Spec. Staph. 535, 17 



(1840). 



At the period Erichson was engaged on the great work 

 above cited, this insect appears to have been of great rarity 

 in collections, and his description was drawn up from the 

 female only, of which he had a very limited number of spe- 

 cimens before him. Herr Maerkel, however, shortly after, 

 met with it in considerable numbers in Saxony, and observes, 

 in Germar, Zeitschr. f. d. Entom. iii. 217, 21 (1841), that it 

 is subject to great variation in the puncturing of the thorax, 

 viz. that the number of punctures in the dorsal series varies 

 from one to three, and that occasionally one or other of these 

 is wanting on one side ; he furthermore indicates that the male 

 differs from the female in having the anterior tarsi strongly 

 dilated, and the sixth abdominal segment rather deeply 

 notched, as is usual in the genus. 



I have taken a fine series of this insect, exhibiting nearly 

 all the variations mentioned by Herr Maerkel, in nests of 

 Formica rufa, at Hampstead and Highgate, and Mr. 

 Waterhouse has met with it, but very sparingly, with the 

 same ant, near Erith. 



Genus HET^ERIUS, Erich, in Klug, Jahrb. d. Insec- 

 tenk. i. 156, (1834). 



The present genus, of which the following is the only 

 recorded species, stands out in bold relief amongst the legion 

 of generic subdivisions into which modern systematists have 

 hewn the family Histeridce : the uni-articulate cylindrical 

 club of the antennae, the angularly dilated tibiae and its 



