202 STAPHYLiNiDiE. \_Tacliinus. 



Hills (Matthews) ; Kettlevvell, Yorkshire (in dead grouse) ; Scotland, very rare, 

 'lay and Moray districts. 



T. humeralis^ Grav. Shining black with the margins of thorax, 

 and the elytra^ ferruginous, the latter being often darker on disc ; head 

 finely and thickly punctured, black with mouth pitchy and palpi reddish; 

 antennse a little longer than head and thorax united, with penultimate 

 joints plainly longer than broad ; thorax strongly transverse, moderately 

 rounded at sides, narrowed considerably in front, and slightly before 

 base, with posterior angles obtuse and rounded, very finely and thickly 

 punctured ; scutellum pitchy brown or reddish, punctured ; elytra nearly 

 twice as long as thorax, very finely and thickly jjunctured ; hind body 

 rather strongly narrowed behind, with a long seta on each side of the 

 fifth and sixth segments, finely and thickly punctured ; legs red. L. 

 6-6| mm. 



Male with the seventh dorsal segment of hind body furnished with 

 four blunt lobes, the intermediate pair projecting considerably beyond 

 the otliers, sixth ventral segment broadly emarginate, seventh strongly 

 excised and bifid ; female witli seventh dorsal segment furnished with 

 three lobes, the intermediate forming a broad plate narrowed to a blunt 

 point at ai ex, and the lateral narrow and bluntly spiniform. 



In dung, putrid fungi, dead leaves, haystack refuse, &c. ; common and generally 

 distributed. 



T. proximus, Kr. (T. Immeralis, var. Er. and auct.). Yeiy like the 

 preceding, but distinguished by its rather smaller size and slightly 

 shorter elytra, and by the latter being always dark on disc, even in 

 immature specimens ; the antennse have the penultimate joints a little 

 shorter ; the lobes of the hind body in female are much longer, and the 

 central one, instead of being short and somewhat bluut, is long and pro- 

 longed at apex in an elongate point. L, 5^-6 mm. 



In sheep's droppings, and also in fungi ; as a rule in high and northern districts ; 

 Sutton Park, Birmingham (Blatch) ; Dunham Park, Manchester (Chappell); 

 Northi.mberland district; Scotland, local, Highlands, Clyde, Tay, Dee, and Moray 

 districts 



T. pallipes, Grav. Rather smaller than either of the two preceding, 

 and darker coloured ; black with sides of thorax and apical margin 

 and a humeral patch on elytra reddish testaceous ; it is distinguished 

 from the preceding species by the much shorter elytra ; from the suc- 

 ceedinf' species it may be separated by having the sides of the thorax 

 rather broadly testaceous ; it very closely resembles the common T. 

 rufipes, but may be distinguished from it, apart from the colour of the 

 thorax, by its shorter and rather stouter antennae and the more pro- 

 nounced yellow patch at the shoulders of elytra. L. 5 mm, 



Male with seventh dorsal segment of hind body furnished with four 

 teeth, the intermediate projecting beyond the others which are blunter, 

 sixth ventral segment emarginate, seventh deeply excised ; female with 

 seventh dorsal segment with four spiniform projections, the intermediate 



