28 LAMELLICORNIA. [ Aphodius. 
mixture of fine but larger punctures ; scutellum finely punctured at base ; 
elytra with crenate stri#, interstices finely punctured, rather more 
thickly so at sides than on disc; legs blackish-brown, brownish, or 
yellowish-brown. L. 3-4 mm. 
Male with the metasternum impressed in middle and the spur of the 
anterior tibize curved; in the female the metasternum is simple, and the 
spur of the anterior tibiz is straight. 
In dung ; common and generally distributed throughout the kingdom. 
A. inquinatus, F. Oblong, convex, shining, black, with the an- 
terior angles of thorax usually pitchy red, and the elytra of a dirty- 
testaceous colour, with dark patches longitudinally arranged near suture 
and a more or less irregular dark band before sides, which is oceasionally 
obscure ; head rugose in front, antenne and palpi blackish-brown, the 
former with the club darker; thorax finely punctured with larger 
punctures intermingled which are more numerous at sides ; scutellum 
diffusely punctured ; elytra with shallow crenate striz, extremely finely 
pubescent ; legs reddish-brown with the under-side of the femora lighter. 
L. 33-53 mm. 
Male with the intermediate frontal tubercle more strongly marked, 
and the disc of thorax less closely punctured than in female; the 
metasternum also is slightly impressed and clothed with greyish pubes- 
cence. 
In dung ; somewhat local, but generally distributed and as a rule common through- 
out the greater part of England; rarer, however, further north; Scotland, local, 
Tweed and Forth districts ; it is probably common in parts of Ireland. 
(A. melanostictus, Schmidt. Very closely allied to the preceding, 
but, as a rule, much larger, with the ground colour of the elytra of a 
darker testaceous colour and the legs more developed, and usually 
lighter ; the latter point, however, appears to be variable ; the sides of 
the thorax are entirely reddish-testaceous, and the anterior black marking 
in the second interstice of the elytra is situated in or about the middle, 
whereas in A. inquinatus it is always before the middle; the dark 
markings, however, in these species of Aphodius, are often very irregular. 
L. 38-7 mm. (14-33 lin., Erichson). 
Apparently very local and rare in Britain; it was introduced by Mr. Rye on 
specimens from the Manchester district (Ent. Monthly Mag. xv. 280); Wallasey, 
Cheshire, and Crosby near Liverpool (rare, resembling suffused specimens of A. 
inquinatus, Ellis); Withington, Cheshire (Chappell). ) 
(I inserted this species on the authority of Mr. Rye, but felt somewhat doubtful 
about it, as specimens sent me by Mr. Chappell did not appear to agree with Mr. Rye’s 
description ; I am, however, now strongly of opinion that the specimens on which the 
species has been introduced are merely forms of A. inquinatus, and I am led to this 
belief through the paper by Dr. Ellis, published, since | wrote the above description, 
in the Entomological Society’s Transactions, xv., 1888, in which he fully discusses 
the question ; the chief distinguishing character, as he points out, lies in the male, 
which in melanostictus has the metasternal plate extremely finely punctured and 
