CdJiUS.] STAPHYLINID^. 283 



The mr varlolo.iis, Sharp, is a highly developed hmn of the male 

 with the head much enlarged and more strongly punctured, and the 

 thorax widened m front to admit the wider neck ; the underside also of 

 the hind body is more sparingly and coarsely punctured. 



,.^.'l%°f.^''-';t.7entunr, &c. ; Falmouth; Berwick-upou-Tweed ; Scotland, Forth 

 district, &c. ; Ireland, Bray, county Wicklow. 



C. sericeus, Holme (pruinosus, Er., Reinus serieeus, Holme, npc 

 iiioms., P,eudidus serieeus, Muls. et Eey). Elongate, linear, dull 

 Llaiik or brownish, clothed with thick and fine greyish pubescence ; head 

 rather large, about as broad as thorax, thickly and strongly punctured 

 with a longitudinal smooth space on forehead ; antennae obscure with 

 apex lighter, penultimate joints scarcely transverse ; thorax lon-er than 

 broad, with sides almost straight and parallel, finely and thic\ly, but 

 distinctly punctured, with a smooth longitudinal space in centre some- 

 what raised behind; elytra plainly longer than thorax, dull, very finely 

 and thickly punctured ; hind body very finely and thickly punctured 

 seventh segment less closely punctured and more shining; le-s more or 

 less pitchy, usually dark, with the knees and tarsi somewhat Ijitchy tes- 

 taceous, anterior tarsi moderately dilated in both sexes. L. 4f-5 mm 

 _ Male with the seventh ventral segment angularly excised, and the 

 sixth segment slightly sinuate in middle of apical margin. 



On the sea-coast iu decaying sea-weed ; local, but rather common in the south of 

 England; A\h.tstable, Sheerness, Bognor, Margate, Kincrsgate, Broadstairs: Little- 

 hampton; Southsea ; Portsmouth; Isle of Wight, Ventnor, Ryde, &c. rather 

 common on the wing m early spring, settling on the rocks and stones iu ti.e sun • 

 1-almouth; Dawhsh; Liverpool; Lancaster; Scotland, very local, taken by Pro! 

 fessor McNab near Ayr; Ireland, Malahide, near Dublin. ^ 



ACT03IUS, Fauvel. 



This sub-genus contains a number of small species which differ from 

 Philontlius and Cafius in characters before mentioned, and from all the 

 species properly belonging to these genera in having the terminal joint 

 of the maxillary palpi conical; it is, however, very acute and lonc^er 

 than the penultimate joint, and in this differs from the same joint in tlie 

 sub-genus RaUgus (P. pullus, &c.), in which it is conical, but is almost 

 shorter than the penultimate ; all our species have the whole of the surface 

 of the thorax more or less closely punctured with a smooth central longi- 

 tudinal narrow space. The first two species A. cinemsrens an.l sianati. 

 conns, are considered by Mulsant and Key to form one of his "reat 

 divisions of the Staphylminae, under the name of Eemates, and to be of 

 equivalent value to the Staphylinates and the Philonthates ; the chief 

 character on which they form this division is the triangularly dilated 

 second joint of the antennas ; there are also certain differences in the 

 meta- and meso-sternum, but it hardly seems a logical course to form a 



