96 SERRICORNIA. | Melanotus. 
M. punctolineatus, Pel. (niver, F.; Hctinus aterrimus, Steph., 
&c.). Rather broad, subcylindrical, convex, black, dull, clothed with 
tine and rather thin greyish pubescence; head and thorax coarsely and 
very thickly punctured, antennz black, rather short and stout, pubescent, 
second and third joints short, the third, however, longer than the second; 
thorax about as broad as long, with sides subparallel behind, rounded 
and gradually narrowed in front, more rounded in female than in male, 
with a narrow raised central line and traces of a broad central furrow at 
base, posterior angles straight, sharply prominent and carinate; scu- 
tellum quadrate, thickly punctured; elytra subparallel, very gradually 
narrowed behind, more dilated in female than in male, with rather 
coarse punctured strie, interstices plainly punctured and somewhat 
rugose; legs black, tibiz and tarsi sometimes reddish. L. 11-13 mm. 
Sandy places; at roots of grass, &e.; not common; Wimbledon; Peywell Bay 
(Matthews) ; Deal (where it has been taken by many collectors in some numbers) ; 
Dover (C. G. Hall); Stephens records it from Twickenham, Swansea, and Windsor. 
M. rufipes, Herbst. (fulvipes, Herbst. and Steph., zee Gyll.; bicolor, 
F.). Elongate, pitchy black or pitchy brown, with the thorax often reddish 
at margins, upper surface clothed with fine greyish pubescence, which 
is rather long on the head and thorax, and shorter on the elytra; head 
thickly punctured, anteune rather long, pubescent, ferruginous, varying 
a little in the sexes, with second and third joints short; thorax about as 
long as or a little longer than broad, more thickly punctured at sides 
than on dise, with sides rounded and narrowed in front, posterior angles 
projecting and strongly carinate; scutellum oblong, depressed, thickly 
punctured; elytra three times as long as thorax, gradually narrowed to 
apex, with rather weak, but distinctly punctured, striz, interstices finely 
punctured; legs ferruginous. L. 10-16 mn. 
Male with the thorax narrower and less rounded at sides, the third 
joint of the antenne longer, and the elytra more gradually and strongly 
narrowed to apex and less parallel; the pubescence also of the antennze 
is longer and thinner than in the female. 
In rotten wood; frequently on the wing; rather common and generally dis- 
tributed throughout the greater part of England; Scotland, local, Solway, Forth, 
Tay, and Dee districts; Ireland, near Dublin, local. 
M. castanipes, Payk. (obscurus, F.; fulvipes, Gyll., nee Herbst.). 
Larger and broader than the preceding, and with the elytra longer, three 
and a half times as long as the thorax; the average colour also appears 
to be lighter; the sides of the thorax are less evenly rounded, the strie 
of the elytra are stronger, and the interstices more strongly punctured; 
the male has the thorax less strongly narrowed in front and the elytra 
less acuminate behind; the lateral margins of the thorax are subangulate 
in both sexes; the species is very closely allied to M. rufipes, and in 
many collections is represented merely by one sex of the latter species, 
