102 SMYNTHURUS. 



Smynthurus signatus, Nic. Mem. Soc. Helv. 1842. 



— — Gervais. Suites a Buflfon, Apteres. 



— ater, „ „ „ 



— BusJcii, Lubbock. Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xxiii. 



— signatus, Poratb. Of. af. k. Vet.-Akad. Forliand- 



lingar, 1869. 

 Poclura fusca, globosa, nitida, antennis longis, articulis plurimis. 



Plate II. 



Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, France, England. 



Length *125 of an incli; June to November. 



Common in Kent, on pieces of wood and bark in 

 damp situations. 



They feed principally on the spores and first shoots 

 of fungi. Many specimens were infested by a small 

 mite, which adhered to the underside of the body, and 

 was sometimes present in considerable numbers. 



The hairs, which cover the head as well as the body, 

 stand at a distance of about "0047 of an inch from one 

 another. They are gently curved, about "0075" in 

 length, and roughened with small asperities or pro- 

 jections. The larger hairs on the antenuEe are of the 

 same size and structure, while those on the legs are 

 smoother. The eyes, as in all the species of the 

 genus, are eight in number on each side. The 

 anterior five are arranged in a quincunx, which, how- 

 ever, is not quite regular one of the posterior, pair being 

 a little too far back ; the other three form a triangle. 

 This arrangement agrees with that figured by M. 

 Nicolet as characteristic of the genus (1. c, pi. ii, fig. 

 26) ; but in the present species the eyes are rather 

 nearer together than in his figure, and agree even more 

 closely with his representation of those of Lepido- 

 cyrtus, especially as in that genus he makes the eyes 

 tolerably uniform in size ; whereas in Smynthurus he 

 represents the central eye of the quincunx as being 

 much smaller than the others, which is not the case 

 in this species. The antennae are '0475" in length, 

 of which the terminal many-jointed portion forms 

 nearly one half. The basal segment is cylindrical and 



