Manners, Sfc. of some of the British Brachelytra. 1 13 



elytra are narrowly tipped with dull rufous : the mouth also is 

 conspicuously rufous like the antennse. 



Aleochara fuscipes never fell under my notice in Lancashire : I 

 should have concluded it to be a southern insect, but the Entom. 

 Edinensis states it to be as common in Scotland as it is in Eng- 

 land. 



Pella funesta I took in the Scilly Islands : from Stephens's 

 account it appears to be a very rare insect. 



Is Calliceriis S'pencii common in any English locality? I have 

 heard that it is more common on sandy shores in Ireland, and 

 some years since I availed myself of a calm to land from a yacht 

 in Dundrum Bay, county Antrim, for the express purpose of 

 hunting for it, as it is said to occur there ; but I had no success. 

 For my own specimens I am indebted to the Rev. G. T. Rudd.. 



In the two first species of Mycetoporus, I should have been 

 glad if Mr. Stephens had given some additional characters for 

 discrimination, beyond the different proportions of the terminal 

 joint of the antennse, as this appears to vary greatly in individuals ; 

 and, judging from my own specimens alone, most of which are in 

 this respect intermediate between Stephens's two descriptions in 

 the proportions of this joint, I should feel tempted to agree with 

 Gravenhorst against Stephens, in considering7kf?/c. riifipennis a mere 

 variety of Myc. analis : " sed non nostri tantas componere lites." 



The beautiful genus BoUtohius affords, in some of the species, 

 a remarkable illustration of the extent to which the length of the 

 specimen is often affected by the retraction of the joints of the 

 abdomen within each other after death. The blue-black tip of 

 the abdomen in the tw'o first species is intersected by a ring of 

 yellowish white, which is sufficiently obvious while the insect is 

 alive and in motion : but after death it is so completely withdrawn 

 into the preceding segment, as to be rarely visible in a cabinet 

 specimen, imless carefully stretched in setting. 



I may observe that in Gloucestershire and Lancashire, where 

 I have principally collected in autumn, the relative frequency of 

 B. lunulatus and B. atncapillus is the reverse of that given by 

 Stephens for the metropolitan district, the latter being extremely 

 common, and the former so rare, that I have only a single speci- 

 men in my cabinet, which was taken some years since in Glouces- 

 tershire. Perhaps, as B. lunulatus is said by Mr. Dillwynn to be 

 " not common near Swansea," it may be a southern species 

 relatively to the other, though the Entom, Edin. says that both 

 species are " not unfrequent" there, and occur in company. 



I doubt whether all the species described by Mr. Stephens may 



