Sinodendron “4 LAMELLICORNIA. 7 
Wales, and rather common from the midland counties southwards ; it is, however, rarer 
further north; Scotland, rare, Tay, Dee, and Moray districts; it is probably not 
uncommon in Ireland. 
(Platycerus, Geoffrey ; Systenocerus, Weise. As this genus of the 
Lucanide, represented by the single species P. caraboides, has been 
included in all our old catalogues, it can hardly be passed over without 
notice ; the genus is allied to Lucanus and Dorcus, but differs in having 
the eyes entire, and in the shape of the club of the antennz, the first 
joint of which is very small, the second and third narrow and laterally 
elongate, and the last very large, subovate; from Sinodendron it differs 
in its depressed form, and in the fact that the posterior femora project 
beyond the sides of elytra. 
P. caraboides, L. Blue or greenish, rather shining; head and man- 
dibles larger in male than in female, the former rather closely punctured 
and pubescent ; thorax transverse, with margins strongly raised, rounded 
at sides which are sinuate behind, thickly and distinetly punctured ; 
elytra with rows of punctures which are rather thick and comparatively 
fine; interstices somewhat rugose; under-side pitchy black, rather 
strongly pubescent ; legs black or pitchy black. L. 8-12 mm. 
Stephens records the species as very rare in Britain, and says that 
‘“‘specimens have been taken by Mr. Waring of Bristol” and others in 
Scotland, and that it has also occurred near Oxford, and in the west of 
England ; I have a specimen in my collection which I purchased from the 
collection of the late Mr. E. Brown of Burton-on-Trent, and which was 
labelled ‘‘e coll. Children ;” Erichson records the species as widely dis- 
tributed throughout Germany, and Thomson speaks of it as ‘not rare on 
young leaves of oak, birch, and aspen, and as spread over all Scandi- 
navia ;” it appears that it may very probably be really indigenous in our 
country, although very rare. ) 
SCARABAIDE. 
This family, which is co-extensive with the Petalocera of Dumeril, is 
one of the largest and most important families of the Coleoptera ; in the 
Munich catalogue about six hundred genera, containing about six 
thousand and fifty species, are enumerated, and since its publication a 
large number of genera and species have been added to it, as may be 
judged from the fact that in the Supplement of the Cétonides by M. 
Bergé, published in 1884, no less than eight hundred and fifty species, 
and about one hundred and fifty new genera are enumerated as having 
been described since the publication of the Munich catalogue in 1869. 
The largest known members of the Coleoptera belong to this family, 
and some of them, as has been already mentioned, are distinguished by 
the very great development of the horns on the head and thorax ; a great 
number of them are dung-feeders, and as such act as most useful 
scavengers ; among these may especially be mentioned the members of 
