Achenium.'] staph YLiNiDiE. 305 



appearance they would he considered hark insects, hut, altliongh they 

 occasionally are found under hark, yet as a rule they occur in moss, 

 flood refuse, under stones, at roots of grass, &c. ; there are only two 

 British species. 



1. Elytra bright testaceous red with at least basal third 

 sharply black ; apex of hind body eoncolorous or almost 



so A. DEPBESSUM, Orav. 



2. Elytra dirty reddish or brownish red with the base often 



obscurely darker; apex of hind body broadly testaceous . A. humile, Nic. 



A. depressum, Grav. Very flat, parallel-sided, shining hlack, 

 elytra bright testaceous red with tlxe base sharply black ; head as broad 

 as thorax, narrowed in front, sparingly punctured ; antennae rather long 

 with all the joints oblong, last joint acuminate ; thorax longer than broad 

 widest in front and narrowed to base where it is narrower than elytra, 

 sparingly punctured, with two double dorsal series of fine punctures, 

 separated by a rather broad smooth interval ; elytra about as long as 

 thorax, finely and not closely punctured, the punctuation being some- 

 times in obsolete rows near base; hind body widened behind or sub- 

 parallel, black with the apex usually eoncolorous, finely, thickly, and 

 distinctly punctured ; legs red, tarsi lighter. L. 7 mm. 



Male Avith the seventh ventral segment of hind body broadly emargi- 

 nate in a somewhat obtuse angle at apex, sixth slightly sinuate. 



In moss, flood refuse, &c., usually in damp places ; local ; London district, generally 

 distributed; Bognor ; Hastings; Isle of Wight; Southsea ; Harwich; Hythe ; 

 Shipley, near Horsham ; GlauviUes Wootton j not recorded, however, except from the 

 London district and the south. 



A. humile, Nic. Smaller than the preceding and even more depressed ; 

 it may at once be distinguished by the colour of the elytra which are of 

 a dirty reddish tint with the base sometimes obscurely darker, and by 

 the apex of the hind body being broadly testaceous ; the two dorsal 

 series of the thorax are composed as a rule of single roAvs of punctures, 

 and the punctures are not placed so closely together ; the sexual characters 

 do not differ materially. L. 6-6| mm. 



In moss, flood refuse, &c. ; more widely distributed than the preceding, but gene- 

 rally considered less common ; London district, not common, Cliathaui, Shoeniess, 

 Reigate, Lee, Walton-on-Tbames, Kingston, Toubridge, Cowley, Rainham, Dageu- 

 ham, &c. ; Sliipley, near Horsham (in numbers); Hythe; Harwich; Holm Bush, 

 Brighton ; Hastings ; Stratford ; Gumley, Market Harborough ; Salford Priors ; 

 Bariiwood, near Gloucester (under bark of old stumpj ; Reptou, near Burtou-on- 

 Trent ; I know of no locality further north. 



CRVPTOBIUXyi, Mannerheim. 



This genus was originally established for the single European species 

 C. ylaherniaum ; it now contains about IGO species, of which about sixty 

 have lately been described by Dr. Sharp from Central America ; the 

 otlier species are widely distributed in North and South America, 



VOL. II. X 



