8 COLEOPTERA. 



rare var. corruscus of Philonthus eberimus, accompanied 

 by Aleochai^a lata, at Bognor, in a nest on the ground ; 

 and by an account of Mr. Lawson's explorations in pigeon- 

 cotes at Scarborough, where (besides a peculiar Acanthia, 

 not strictly mentionable here, but probably columbaria, 

 Jenyns) he has found in considerable quantity the univer- 

 sally very rare Aleochara villosa, which it may be remem- 

 bered has also been met with under similar circumstances 

 by Herr Cornelius (Stettin. Ent. Zeit., 1869, p. 4081; cf. 

 Ent. Mo. Mag. viii, p. 65). With this species were some 

 specimens, all exactly similar, of the var. of Homalium 

 florale, Payk., with entirely rufous antennae (for which 

 species M. Fauvel adopts the name rufipes, Fourcroy), men- 

 tioned by Dr. Kraatz (Ins. Deutschl. ii, p. 997) as riificorne, 

 Waltl.* With these were also a large number of very fine 

 specimens of Ptinus fur, of both sexes, many Niptus cre- 

 natus, and quantities of Crypfophagi, chiefly saginatus and 

 cellaris. Mr. Lawson found that a nest which had recently 

 contained young pigeons was most prolific ; and his account 

 of the undue proportion of broken specimens would seem to 

 tln'ow doubt upon the accuracy of Dr. Watts' dictum, that 

 " Birds in their little nests agree." To Mr. Lawson, also, in 

 addition to the species mentioned in the last "Annual," p. 45 

 (especially Niiidula Jlexuosa, apparently well established at 

 its locality), and to the others separately recorded in these 

 pages, Haploglossa pulla, Aleochara procera, MyllcBna 



• Dr. Ivraatz refers to this form as much rarer than the type (in which 

 the antennjE are pitchy black, and more or less rufo-ferruginous towards 

 the apex), and as having almost the facies of a distinct species, on 

 account of its less intensely black thorax and elytra, of which the 

 margins are reddish-brown. I have never before seen this form; all my 

 London district specimens being apparently the var, nnacul'icorne of 

 Hcer, in which the 3rd, 4th, and apical joints are rufous. — E. C. R. 



