190 THE ENTOiMOLOGIST. 



Of ibis important group of Coleoptera 487 species were 

 enumerated as inhabiting tbe valle}-, of wbicli 463 were 

 described as new, suggesting forcibly how little is really 

 known of tbe Staphylinidae of Tropical America. Dr. Sharp 

 also stated that he had devised a method of covering and 

 hermetically sealing the type specimens, which, he believed, 

 would accomplish their almost complete preservation, and 

 that he hoped soon to be able to publish a description of the 

 method. The author concluded with remarking on the great 

 importance of certain sexual characters in distinguishing the 

 species. 



March 1, 187(). 



Prof. J. O. Weslwood, M.A., F.L.S., &c., President, in the 

 chair. 



Habits of Cychrus cylindricollis. — Mr. Bates read a letter 

 from Mr. Trovey Blackmore to Mr. M'Lachlan, stating that 

 he was much interested in observing a notice in the ' Pro- 

 ceedings' of this Society respecting the habits of Cychrus 

 cylindricollis, reported by M. Baudi to feed on snails. He 

 had already called attention (in the ' Entomologist's Monthly 

 Magazine,' vol. xi., p. 214) to the fact that Carabus sleno- 

 ce])balus, Fairm., fed on snails, which in Morocco were so 

 very abundant as to form a marked feature in the landscape 

 by covering the bushes so thickly as to resemble, at a 

 distance, clusters of blossom. He had captured in all 

 eighteen specimens of this scarce Carabus, and of these 

 fifteen were obtained either feeding on snails or climbing up 

 bushes of Retama, which were covered with snails, especially 

 Helix planata. The Carabus having an unusually long head, 

 and the prothorax being narrowed anteriorly, enabled it to 

 thrust its head and prothorax a considerable distance within 

 the shell in search of its food. It belonged to a group com- 

 ])rising several species found in North Africa, which much 

 resembled Cychrus in appearance, and which possessed 

 characters sufficiently marked to entitle them to form, if not 

 a genus distinct from Carabus, at least a subgenus of Carabus. 

 One of them (possibly a t"f/>-. of C. stenocephalus) occurred in 

 the more northern parts of the Atlantic coast of Morocco, and 

 had been named by Fairmaire C. cychrocephalus ; and 

 another species (C. Aumonti, Lucas) had been found at Oran 



