1 18 Mr. F. Holme 07i the Habits, 



the country ; I have taken it in Kent, Essex, Lancashire, Glou- 

 cestershire, Oxfordshire, and Ireland, besides the localities noticed 

 above. 



St. bruntiipes is apparently an autumnal species ; it is very 

 common under stones in September and October, but I scarcely 

 ever took it earlier in the year. To the same section with it 

 would belong a species which appears to be undescribed : 



St. semipolitus mihi. Length 7^ lines; black; head small, 

 rounded, and, as well as the tliorax, very glossy and polished, and 

 somewhat distantly punctured, but on closer exainination numerous 

 minute punctures are seen interspersed with the larger ones ; vertex 

 of the head and dorsal line of the thorax nearly smooth ; elytra 

 dull brassy, with a few long hairs, minutely strigose-punctate, 

 with a single very large puncture on tlie disk towards the apex, 

 and one or two others towards the base ; abdomen dull black, 

 strongly margined, the penultimate segment narrowly edged with 

 whitish ; punctured, with two large punctures on each side of 

 each segment ; mouth and antennae piceous-black ; palpi rufo- 

 piceous ; femora and tibiae brassy black, with a slight aureous 

 pubescence; tarsi, especially the anterior, bright piceo- rufous. — 

 I have taken three specimens, two in Christ Church Meadow, 

 Oxford, and the third at Kemp-Town, near Brighton ; it approaches 

 nearest to S, cnntianus, but is distinguished by the colour of the 

 tibiae : Mr. Waterhouse pronounced it decidedly new to England. 

 I have not however had an opportunity of consulting the works 

 of Gravenhorst or Mannerheim. 



Britain has been considered by Messrs. Kirby and Spence to be 

 the metropolis of the Brachelytra : and this is in some degree 

 corroborated by the fact that the Goerius olens, which may pro- 

 bably be considered as the typical species of the whole division, 

 though so abundant in Britain, is by no means equally common in 

 any part of the European continent, and in Sweden, according to 

 De Geer, is so rare that he never took a single specimen : and 

 Linnaeus was even led by its rarity to doubt its rank as a species, 

 considering that it might be a variety of Creophilus maxillosus, 

 and denuded of its pubescence by age ! Its habits are too well 

 known to require any remark, and it carries its sanguinary dis- 

 position even into captivity, destroying its fellow prisoners without 

 mercy if placed in the collecting bottle. I have frequently had 

 occasion to remark the tacit homage paid to the prowess of this 

 and even smaller Brachelytra by the Harpalidce and other pre- 

 dacious families, which invariably take to flight at their approach ; 



