Manners, Sfc. of some of the British Brachehjtra. 119 



the only exception to this which I remember to have witnessed 

 was given by the maritime species Broscus cephalotes, which I have 

 seen defend its prey stoutly against Creop/iilus max'illosus. 



The Go'erii are monogamous : a pair is frequently found in a 

 crevice, in the side of a quarry or gravelpit, with their broad 

 heads occupying the entrance of their den, ready to dart out on 

 any hapless insect which may fall from the top. 



None of the other Go'erii appear to be very common : four or 

 five years ago, when a tyro in Entomology, I took a remarkably 

 fine specimen of G. cyaneus, near Broughton Hall, in Staffordshire, 

 but unfortunately gave it away : — the only other species I ever 

 met with are G. punctulaius and G. morio, neither of which are 

 very uncommon in the west of England, particularly the Scilly 

 Isles : these two species appear very closely allied, but those to 

 which I have affixed the name G. morio are somewhat slenderer 

 than the others, have narrower heads, and less blue gloss on the 

 elytra. I found both species together, in company with Ocypi, 

 on the shore, and often under coarse mould on the cliffs close to 

 the sea. 



The Ocypi are more elongated in form than any of the preced- 

 ing genera, and their long abdomen has a serpentine lateral motion 

 in running, which resembles that of a worm more than an insect. 

 The species resemble each other very closely in form, and different 

 specimens of the same species vary greatly in dimensions : my 

 smallest specimen of O. similis is scarcely 4J lines long, my largest 

 nearly 8 lines. 0. picipes differs from it in little that I can dis- 

 tinguish except its somewhat greater breadth and bulk, larger 

 head, and somewhat more glossy hue. 0. comprcssus, of which I 

 have a Cornish specimen, is distinguished by its bright ferruginous 

 legs : O. angustatus, and 0. phcsopus, the two other species de- 

 scribed by Mr. Stephens, I never met with. 



Microsauriis lateralis, the Quedius lateralis of Stephens's " Illus- 

 trations," is apparently a very rare British insect, as he mentions 

 only two indigenous specimens as being then known : I took, 

 however, a fine specimen out of horsedung, in Gloucestershire, in 

 September last. My specimen is scarcely five lines long : it is an 

 insect of a remarkably short, broad, thickset figure, with a large 

 head, powerful jaws, and very large eyes ; the abdomen is short 

 and broad, like that of Emus hirtiis, but diminishing somewhat in 

 breadth towards the apex : in my specimen there is a large punc- 

 ture or foveola on the occiput, which is not mentioned by Mr. 

 Stephens ; and the deflexed edge of the elytra is not " pale 



K 2 



