staph yliuuS.] STAPHYLINIDiE. 251 



at the base of the sixth and seventh segments of hind body • head 

 hardly as broad as thorax, narrowed in front, thickly, and ratlier strongly 

 punctured ; antennae longer and more slender than in our other species 

 ot the sub-genus Platiidrams, dark, with the first two or three, and the 

 last one or two, joints red, penultimate joints slightly transverse ; thorax 

 subquadrate, with anterior angles almost right angles and posterior angles 

 rounded, thickly and rather strongly punctured ; elytra about as lon° as 

 tliorax finely, thickly, and somewhat rugosely punctured ; hind body 

 dull black, except for the bands of pubescence before referred to finely 

 punctured ; legs red, with cox« dark. L. 12-14 mm. ' 



Male with seventh ventral segment of hind body broadly and ancrularly 

 emarginate in middle of apical margin, with the lateral lobes broadly 

 truncate. ^ 



In moss, and at roots of grass, generally in chalky places ; rare ; Folkestone; New 

 Forest; bcotlaud very rare, Dee and Clyde districts: Mr. G. Lewis has taken it in 

 larger numbers than any other collector, at any rate, of late years. 



_S. stercorarius, 01. {Platydrams stercomrius, Thoms.). Black 

 with the elytra red, and the hind body above and below furnished with 

 bands of silvery pubescence ; head and thorax thickly and rather stron<dy 

 punctured, the former as broad as thorax, slightly narrowed in front the 

 latter subquadrate, with anterior angles almost right angles, and posterior 

 angles rounded, with a more or less obsolete smooth central line • 

 antenna ferruginous, or dark, with the three or four basal joints red' 

 joints 7-10 strongly transverse ; elytra about as long as thorax rather 

 finely punctured ; hind body finely punctured, black, with a patch of 

 silvery pubescence on each side of the basal segments, and two dentate 

 bands of the same on the fifth and sixth segments, chest and seaments 

 of hmd body at base with pubescence of the same character • lerrs red 

 with coxa? dark. L. 12-13 mm. ' '^ ' 



Male with seventh ventral segment of hind body broadly sinuate with 

 a smooth space before sinuation. 



In carcases, dung, dung-heaps, &c., but mostly found on the wing or runnin- i,, 

 pathways; not common, but very widely distributed; Sheerness, Whitstable Bllck- 

 heath Caterham, Putney, Addiugtou ; Deal; Hastings; GlauviUes Wootton ; Isle of 

 \\ight; Bournemouth; Croyd near Barnstaple, Devon ; Swansea; Bristol; Repton : 

 Alatlock; Hykeham, near Lincoln ; Lincoln; Liverpool ; Holy Island ; South Shields ('i 

 fine series taken by Mr^ Bold " in nest of a Myrmica") ; Scotland, local, Lowlands. 

 Solway, Clyde, Tweed, Forth, Tay, Moray, and Sutherland districts. 



S. latebricola, Gray, (rupicola, Kies., Platydracus latehrkola, 

 i Horns.). Very like the preceding in size, shape, and general appear- 

 ance, but easdy distinguished by having the head and thorax distinctly 

 bronzed, and the antennae entirely pitchy black ; the head and thorax 

 are somewhat more coarsely punctured, and the pubescence of the hind 

 body IS less silvery, and somewhat yellowish, and also more sparinr^ on 

 the apical segments ; the ventral segments have each of them a band of 

 pubescence more or less marked at base ; legs red, with all the coxje 



