114 Mr. F. Holme 07i the Habits, 



be truly distinct, as the testaceous margins of the abdominal seg- 

 ments appear to be become suffused when mature : and in those 

 in which the thorax is testaceous during life, it often becomes so 

 much suffused in a few hours after death, that it appears to be 

 dark piceous with testaceous margins. The delicacy of the 

 colouring in these insects probably occasions this rapid change, 

 which I ascertained by examining specimens minutely when alive, 

 and dividing them afterwards from the others : but having no 

 works on Entomology with me at the time, I was unfortunately 

 unable to note the species. 



I have nothing to add relative to the remaining genera of the 

 Tachypor'idce except a few localities, which I have already com- 

 municated to the Society in the catalogue of Penzance Coleoptera, 



•With reference to the magnificent Velle'ms dilatatus, hitherto 

 unique* as British, which stands at the head of the StaphyUnidce 

 ])roper, it may not be amiss to mention that I was informed some 

 time since, 1 think by a continental naturalist, that in addition to 

 haunting hornet's nests for the purpose of preying on the larvae, 

 as noticed by Mr. Stephens, it frequents the holes perforated in 

 trunks of trees by Longicorn and Lepidopterous larvae, on which 

 it feeds ; issuing from this concealment only at night, when it has 

 been occasionally taken on the trees in mothing : this may not be 

 a new fact, but I think whatever may tend to facilitate the acqui- 

 sition of so fine an insect in Britain is worth noticing. 



Creophilus maxillosus. The variations in bulk of this con- 

 spicuous and well-known species may serve as an obvious example 

 how little the mere dimensions are to be regarded as a rule of 

 specific distinction among the Brachelytra, as I have above hinted 

 in my remarks on the Aleocharce. Of the specimens standing in 

 my own cabinet, all from the same locality, (the Cornish coast,) 

 the largest measures, with the mandibles, full 13 lines long; the 

 smallest barely Gg lines, or not quite half the other : and the 

 variations in the relative proportions of the heads and mandibles 

 in the different species are not less obvious. Some specimens 

 also are so completely denuded as to present scarcely a trace of 

 pubescence on any part of the body, while others are thickly pu- 

 bescent except on the head and thorax : the colour too of the 

 pubescence varies, the lighter parts being in some white, in others 

 greyish, and in old specimens partaking of a griseous brown. All 

 these variations, if observed in an Aleochara a line long, would 

 probably have caused its division into three or four species. 



* Since this was writlen, a second specimen has been taken at Southend by the 

 Rev. F. W. Hope, in the autumn of 1840. 



