Ptinide.)} SERRICORNIA. 181 
P.fur, L. Of a lighter or darker fuscous-brown colour, with pale 
pubescence ; thorax subcylindrical, with a distinct central furrow, which 
is furnished on each side with a longitudinal patch of yellowish-grey 
hairs, which are abbreviated in front, and join or nearly join behind ; 
these patches are often rubbed, except in fresh specimens, as also, in 
fact, is the pubescence of the elytra, which is sometimes very indistinct; 
the scutellum is clothed with whitish pubescence, and there are two 
bands or patches of the same on the elytra; the elytra are punctured 
in regular rows, and bear rows of short sete. LL. 2-4 mm. 
Male with the antenne very long, and the third joint twice as long as 
the second, and the eyes large and eonvex; the elytra are oblong and 
parallel-sided, with the shoulders marked, and the rows of punctures are 
rather strong, the interstices being narrow; the legs are very long and 
slender, and the apex of the femora is elongate-clavate. 
Female with the antenne much shorter, and the eyes smaller; the 
elytra are ovate, subglobose, and are more finely punctured, with much 
broader interstices ; the legs also are shorter and stouter, with the apex 
of the femora scarcely clavate. 
In old wood; often found in old houses and museums; occasionally it occurs in 
birds’ nests, and in various kinds of decaying animal and vegetable refuse ; common 
and generally distributed throughout the greater part of the kingdom. 
P. subpilosus, Mull. This species appears closely to resemble 
P. fur, but it is smaller and narrower, and, as a rule, more lightly 
coloured; it may be known by the much longer sete and coarser punc- 
tuation of the elytra, and the absence of the white tuft of hairs that 
fringes the base of the longitudinal central furrow of thorax ; the latter 
distinction, however, is not very obvious; the sexual differences seem to 
be much the same as in P. fur, UL. 2-24 mm. 
In rotten wood, sometimes in company with ants; rare; Chatham (J. J. Walker) ; 
Tilgate Forest, in ants’ nests (Brewer); Boundstone (Power); Cobham Park, 
Surrey ; Repton (W. Garneys). 
The three following species have been taken in Britain, but can 
hardly be accepted as indigenous without further confirmation :— 
(P. pilosus, Mill. Very closely allied to P. subpilosus, and difficult 
to distinguish from that species ; it is, however, a little larger, and may 
be distinguished by its broader and somewhat more granulosely sculp- 
tured thorax and stouter antenne, of which the first joints are propor- 
tionally shorter; the elytra in the female are rather longer and less 
globose, with the punctures in the strize smaller and more closely set, 
and the third joint of the tarsi is somewhat longer. L. 23-3 mm, 
In old wood ; Horsell and Enfield (Power) ; it is also said to have been taken at 
Chatham and Tilgate, but it has in some instances been apparently confused with 
P. subpilosus ; it is generally distributed and not rare in Germany, especially in old 
oaks. 
(P. brunneus, Duft. (testaceus, Boield. ; hirtellus, Sturm). Of a tes- 
