86 HETEROMERA, [Anthicus. 
Salt marshes; running about on wet mud; often beneath seaweed and flood refuse ; 
not uncommon locally ; Gravesend, Sheerness, Chatham, Whitstable, Southend ; Deal ; 
Portsmouth ; Ryde; Lymington; Weymouth. 
A. salinus, Crotch. Very closely allied to the preceding, from 
which it may be distinguished by having the front of thorax broader, 
at least as wide as, or wider than, head, with the sides more strongly 
and suddenly narrowed behind, and also by its more delicate and close 
punctuation ; colour unicolorous black, upper surface clothed with grey 
pubescence ; thorax very closely and finely punctured, comparatively 
dull; elytra more shiny, with the punctuation slightly rugose in parts; 
legs reddish, with femora pitchy. L. 2-23 mm. 
In salt marshes; very local, and asa rule rare ; Gravesend; Chatham; Lymington 
Salterns (abundant in spring) ; Overton, Hampshire; Portsmouth district ; Portland. 
A. floralis, L. Rufo-testaceous, rather shining, with the posterior 
two-thirds of the elytra, and usually the head and abdomen, dark ; the 
femora and the disc of thorax are also often more or less infuscate, 
so that the general colour is sometimes dark with the hase of elytra, 
antennex, tibiz and tarsi reddish; head straight or almost straight at 
base, very finely punctured; antennz comparatively stout; thorax in 
front about as broad as head, finely punctured, with two small tubercles 
in the middle of its front portion separated by a more or less distinct 
furrow which extends for a greater or less length on the disc of the 
thorax ; elytra much broader at base than base of thorax, closely and 
finely punctured, the punctuation being evidently finer than in most of 
the allied species. L. 3-385 mm. 
Male with the pygidium convex and exserted. 
In haystack refuse, manure heaps, hotbeds, &ec. ; often in gardens; generally dis- 
tributed and common throughout England and Wales; it is probably generally dis- 
tributed in at least the southern half of Scotland, but has only been recorded as yet 
from the Forth district ; Ireland, Dublin and Belfast. and probably general. 
V. quisquilius, Thoms. (basilaris, Say.). This variety, which by 
Thomson and other authors is considered a separate species, differs from 
the type in being less shining, and considerably more closely punctured, 
and especialiy in having the two tubercles on the front of the thorax 
absent ; in other respects it almost exactly resembles the ordinary form; 
as it occurs with the type and appears to be quite as common and 
generally distributed, and as, besides, the size of the tubercles in 
A. floralis appears to be variable, I cannot but think that it must be 
regarded as only a variety. 
A. instabilis, Schmidt. Fuscous, pitchy-brown, or dark red-brown, 
with the elytra lighter towards base ; the colour, however, is variable, 
as in the preceding species, and the specimens are lighter or darker ; 
pubescence greyish, coarser and more distinct than in several of the 
allied species ; head with the base slightly rounded, but not nearly as 
