Cllea.] STAPHYLINIDiB. I99 



very finely and closely punctured ; hind body with short and rather 

 thick pubescence, strongly setose at sides, finely and thickly punctured ■ 

 legs testaceous with coxae more or less dark. L. 3 mm. ' 



The sexual characters are very peculiar, but are hard to describe- in 

 the male the seventh dorsal segment of hind body is cleft into six lobes 

 the intermediate ones being more slender and sharper, and projecting 

 beyond the others, and the lateral ones being short, blunt, and indistinct" 

 sixth and seventh ventral segments emarginate and excised, with a 

 lateral lobe on each side ; in the female the seventh dorsal segment is 

 furnished with six slender lobes more or less spiniform, the intermediate 

 projecting beyond the others, seventh ventral segment also with six 

 lobes, the two central ones being somewhat differently shaped from the 

 corresponding upper lobes. 



n,"jL^?^!?J'"f ■'^rfc '^l?' '/''t'"''!" ^r"°" ^"*^ generally distributed as far north 

 as the Forth district of Scotland ; Ireland, near Belfast and Dublin. 



TACHZNUS, Gravenhorsfc. 



This genus contains about seventy species, which are almost entirely 

 confined to the temperate and northern portions of both the Old and 

 New Worlds ; upwards of half the species are found in Europe and a 

 large number occur in North America: Dr. Sharp has lately described 

 four species from Central America, all, however, from high altitudes up 

 to 10,000 feet; one reputed species has also been described from Chili • 

 they occur m dung, putrid fungi, dead leaves, moss, at sap, &c. • there 

 are thirteen or fourteen British species, two or three of which are 

 extremely common, but some of them are among our rarest insects- in all 

 probability the rare and curious T. elongatus is rightly separated and 

 made a type of a distinct genus by Thomson, as it difi-ers from the rest 

 m several important particulars ; it appears, however, to be retained for 

 the present in its old position by most authorities. The sexual charac- 

 ters of the species of Taehinus are very peculiar, but are hard to describe • 

 they are fully figured by Mulsant and Eey, Brevipennes, Tachyporiens' 

 Plate 111 ; the anterior tarsi are, as a rule, more or less dilated in the 

 male. 



The larva of Tax^Unus rvfipes is described and figured by Schiodte (De Metamor- 

 phosi L eutheratorum yu. p. 553 fig. xix. 1-9) : it is long and almos Sar 

 very slightly narrowed ,n front and behinri, the metatboracic segment beine the 

 widest, and the ast segment of abdomen (which is about the breadth of the heid) iC 

 narrowest ; the head is somewhat produced before antenna which are short ind U 

 considerably narrower than the prothoiax ; the prothorax is about as broad ks lono- 

 nearly as long as the meso- and meta-thorax ; all the segments, with the excention of 

 the last, are latber strongly rounded both in front and bel'nnd, so that the inter 

 sections are very evident; the last segment is subquadrate, and bears a short thick 

 anal appendage tenniuated by four warty prominences, and on each side of the ind 

 appendage two long jointed cerci, which are furnished with strong setai • these se m 

 are also strong and conspicuous on all the segments of the body ; the colour of th^ 

 larva is white with all the scuta, which are large, fuicous, so that it really seems to 



