IX. The Larva of Pelophila. By the Rev. WILLIAM 
FREDERICK JOHNSON, M.A., F.E.S., and GEORGE 
H. CARPENTER, B.Sc., F.E.S. 
{Read February 2nd, 1898.] 
THE ground-beetle Pelophila borealis (Payk.) is among the 
most interesting of our native insects. Spread over the 
northern parts of Siberia, Russia and Scandinavia, it seems 
to be entirely absent from Central Europe as well as from 
the mainland of Great Britain. It occurs however in the 
Orkneys, while in Ireland it is widely distributed in 
Ulster, Connaught and Munster, down to the south- 
western corner of the island. This beetle is, perhaps, the 
most striking instance of a typically Arctic species ranging 
in Ireland far to the south, where it finds itself in com- 
pany with the characteristically southern animals and 
plants of the Lusitanian fauna and flora. Pelophila borealis 
and one other species of the genus inhabit Europe, while 
several other species have been described from the 
northern parts of Asia and America. The genus, there- 
fore, has a complete circumpolar range. 
Systematic writers on the Coleoptera class Pelophila 
with Leistus, Nebria, and Hurynebria in the tribe Ne- 
briina,* which is distinguished from the nearly allied 
Elaphrina (comprising Blethisa and LHlaphrus) by the 
coxal cavities of the front legs being open behind. Fowler 
remarks however} that Pelophila appears to form some- 
what of a connecting link between the two tribes ; al- 
though its mouth-parts resemble those of Nebria, the 
general form of the beetle is like that of Blethisa. It wiil 
be seen that, in the larval stage, Pelophila in several most 
important points of structure differs from Nebria and 
Leistus and agrees with Hlaphrus. On larval characters 
it will now be impossible to discriminate sharply between 
the two sections. 
* Fowler and Sharp, “ Catalogue of British Coleoptera,” London, 
1893. Ganglbauer, “ Die Kafer von Mitteleuropa,” i, Wien, 1892. 
+ “The Coleoptera of the British Islands,” i, London, 1887. 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1898.—PART II. (JUNE.) 
