1 62 STAPHYLINID.!;, [PlttCUSCC. 



the other species, and much larger than its nearest ally P. pumilio, 

 which it resembles in form and punctuation of hind body, &c.; it is also, 

 as a rule, more brightly coloured ; it is, however, chiefly distingvushed 

 by the characters of the male, in which sex the seventh segment of hind 

 body has two tubercles before apex, which is armed as in the preceding 

 species with two lateral incurved spines ; between these, however, there 

 are three rather long tubercles, the external pair of which are strongly 

 bifid, and appear divided almost to their base. L. 2f-3 mm. 



At the overflowing sap of various trees, especially beech, birch, and fir; rare; 

 Mickleham, Ashtead, Ripley (Surrey), Woking, Bishops Wood; Sherwood Forest; 

 Scotland, Tay, Dee, and Moray districts. 



EFIFSDA, Mulsant et Key. 



This genus was formed to incdude the single species H. 2:)lana ; as this 

 appears to have been the original type Humalota, Thomson applies the 

 generic name to this species alone : this plan of limiting the names of 

 large genera to the old types which appear to belong to genera distinct 

 from the mass of species is giving rise at present to the greatest con- 

 fusion of nomenclature, and is much to be deprecated; the genus Epipeda 

 is distinguished from Homalota by its four-jointed intermediate tarsi ; 

 the labial palpi are two- jointed, and the insect comes properly in the 

 neighbourhood of Silusa ; there has l;)een some question as to the number 

 of the joints of the intermediate tarsi, but Dr. Sharp appears to have 

 proved that they are only four in number ; fourteen species have lately 

 been described by the latter writer from Central America, and it is pro- 

 bable that many more will be found in the New World ; they occur 

 under bark. 



E. plana, Gyll. Depressed, black or pitchy with the elytra fuscous, 

 the fore parts very dull, and the hind body shining ; head large, nearly 

 as broad as thorax, distinctly and closely punctured, eyes prominent, 

 antennee rather short and stout, pitchy, with base lighter, first joint as 

 long as second and third together, fifth much broader than fourth, 5-10 

 transverse, eleventh short ; thorax a little narrower than elytra, closely 

 punctured, with an indistinct central channel ; elytra plainly longer than 

 thorax, very finely punctured ; hind body with extremity sometimes pale, 

 with basal segments finely and not thicklj'- punctured, fourth segment 

 more sparingly punctured, fifth and sixth almost impunctate ; legs 

 testaceous, femora pitchy. L. 3 mm. 



Male with the sixth segment of hind body furnished on the upper side 

 before margin with a small raised tubercle, seventh segment with two 

 raised longitudinal lines which project beyond the margin in the form 

 of two small indistinct teeth. 



Under bark of dead ehn and other trees ; local ; London district, rather common ; 

 Glanvilles Wootton, Dorset ; Barnstaple, Devonshire ; Reptou, Burton-on-Trent ; 

 Bewdley and Sherwood Forests ; Sutton Park ; Edgbaston ; Liverpool ; not recorded 

 from the extreme north of England or from Scotland. 



