140 COLEOPTERA. 



Taken at the mouth of the Orwell, in September, by 

 Mr. Waterhouse, and at Deal by Dr. Power and Mr. 

 F. Smith. 



90. Saprinus metallicus, F. (nee Steph.) ; Waterhouse, 



Proc. Ent. Soc. 5 April, 1858, Zool. 6073 (1858). 



Discovered at Deal by Mr. F. Smith. 



Distinguished from S. rugifrons, Payk. [metallicus, 

 Payk., Gyll., Steph.), by its smaller size, more convex ovate 

 form, and by the anterior tibiae having five denticulations 

 only on their outer edge. 



91. Acritus nigricornis, Ent. Hefte ; Waterhouse, Proc. 



Ent. Soc. 5 April, 1858, Zool. 6073 (1858). 



Taken by Mr. Wollaston at Spridlington, Lincolnshire, and 

 by Mr. Waterhouse in the corridor of the Crystal Palace ; in- 

 dicated as a native of Britain by De Marseul in his Mon. 

 Hist. Ann. de la Soc. Ent. de France, 3ieme Ser. iv. 613, 12 

 (1857). ' 



This species is distinguished from A. minutus, Hbst., by 

 the sub-quadrate form of the mesosternum, its marginal stria 

 dividing at each anterior angle, and by the more elongate 

 prosternum. The colour of the antennae appears scarcely to 

 differ in the two species, and the fine striae on the elytra, on 

 which Mr. Waterhouse laid great stress as a diagnostic, 

 though not alluded to in his written and published commu- 

 nication, are certainly not a distinguishing character of ni- 

 gricornis, being not unfrequently conspicuous in minutus. 

 Found in company with minutus in dung-heaps, hot beds, 

 and vegetable and animal refuse. 



In Hister nigricornis, Ent. Hefte, and H. minutus, 

 Hbst., the posterior tarsi consist of four articulations only, a 

 structural peculiarity noticed by Redtenbacher, Faun. Austr. 

 242 (1849), and on which, and the perpendicularly deflexed 



