380 STAPHYLINIDiE. [Oxi/teluS. 



characters are very different and hard to describe ; the seventh ventral 

 segment is deeply and doubly incised, the space between the incisions 

 being a little shorter than the lateral lobes, much broader than the cor- 

 responding space in 0. laqucatns, and feebly tricuspid at apex ; the 

 lateral lobes are prolonged and acuminate ; the sixth segment is bisinuate 

 with the median lobe broad, slightly prolonged, and emarginate at 

 apex. L. 4-41 mm. 



In dung, flood refuse, &c. ; apparently very rare in England, but most probably 

 much commoner tbau it appears to be; BircLvvood (Mr. Waterbnuse, one specimen 

 in cowduug, in the field opposite the inn) ; Snodland, Kent, and Barnes Common 

 (Dr. Power and Mr. R^e) : the species appears to be considered common in France, 

 Germany, and Sweden. 



O. inustus, Grav. (maxillosus, Sperk. Anotyhis inustus, Thoms.). 

 Shining black ; head much larger in male than in female, forehead 

 somewhat convex, very smooth, vertex only indistinctly foveolate ; an- 

 tennse short, gradually thickened towards apex, entirely black, with 

 joints 6-10 strongly transverse; thorax variable in length, more or less 

 transverse, sometimes fully twice as broad as long, with the central 

 furrow more marked than the other two, rugosely and rather thickly 

 punctured at sides, more sparingly on disc ; elytra transverse, scarcely- 

 longer than thorax, rather finely and thickly punctured, with the punc- 

 tuation forming longitudinal rugosities, especially at sides ; hind body 

 very finely punctured ; legs lighter or darker testaceous, with femora 

 darker. L. 3-3 f mm. 



Male with the seventh ventral segment of hind body broadly and 



deeply sinuate, with the centre of sinuation slightly produced, sixth 



segment with two tubercles in centre of apex. 



In dung, dead leaves, hotbeds, decaying seaweed, &c. ; common and generally dis- 

 tributed in the London district and the south ; rarer in the Midlands and further 

 north, and not recorded from the extreme north of England, or from Scotland. 



According to Mulsant and Eey, the small males of this species have 

 the head shaped as in the female, a peculiarity found also in other 

 species ; it is very variable in size. 



O. sculpturatus, Grav. (Jiavipes, Lac, montivagus, Heer. Anof?jJus 

 sculpturatus, Thoms.). Very closely allied to the preceding and often 

 confounded with it ; it is however a little larger and broader, and evi- 

 dently less shining ; the front of the head is more depressed, and is less 

 shinino- owing to being finely shagreened, and the vertex is more dis- 

 tinctly foveolate ; the forehead, at least in the female, is bordered at the 

 sides towards the eyes, whereas in 0. inustus it is not bordered in either 

 sex ; the antenna? are perhaps a little stouter, but this is not a very evi- 

 dent character ; the male characters are very much the same as in the 

 preceding species, except that the impressed space before the tubercles 

 on the sixth ventral segment is rather plainer and smoother. L. 3|-4 

 mm. 



