NEW BRITISH SPECIES NOTICED IN 1859. 109 



mentary canal, bearing at its apex the ligula paraglossae and 

 labial palpi, as a specific peculiarity, and he would pro- 

 bably have designated proboscideus any pale-legged unspotted 

 Stenus in which these organs were similarly protruded ; it is, 

 however, now known that all the Stent are occasionally 

 subject to this disjunction of the ligula from the mentum. 

 Under these circumstances Erichson considered it desirable 

 entirely to discard from the list the trivial name of probos- 

 cideus, a step in which all subsequent writers have concurred. 

 The present species, although very closely allied to S. jla- 

 vipes, may be at once distinguished by the dark apical joint 

 of its palpi, the pitchy brown colour of the tips of all its 

 thighs and base of its tibiae, the brown basal joint and club of 

 its antennae, its more elongate prothorax and more parallel 

 elytra. 



Diffused throughout Europe from Lapland to France and 

 Greece, but everywhere scarce. 



Three or four specimens were taken by Mr. F. Bond in 

 the Fens near Cambridge, in the autumn of 1858, and pre- 

 sented by him to Mr. E. Shepherd ; and I secured a single 

 example in May last on the muddy margin of an old dyke 

 in Holme Fen, Hunts. 



16. Platystethus nitens, Sahib., Kraatz ; E. W. Janson, 

 Proc. Ent. Soc. 4 April, 1859, Zool. 6613(1859). 

 Oxytelus nitens, Sahib. Ins. Fenn. 413, 9 (1834?). 

 $ Platystethus striatulus, Heer, Faun. Col. Helv. i. 



208, 4 (1839). 

 ? ? Platystethus splendens, Heer, Faun. Col. Helv. i. 



208,5(1839). 

 Platystethus nitens, Kraatz, Naturgesch.d.Ins.Deutschl. 

 ii. 845, 5 (1858). 

 Allied to P. nodifrons, with which it was considered 

 identical by Erichson and others, but distinguished by its 



