Micropeplus.'] clavicornia. ^19 



lu haystack refuse, mos5, fungi, etc. ; occasionally by evening sweeping ; not un- 

 counnon and widely distributed throughout the kingdom. 



1*1. marg-aritae, Duv. (fiilims, Er., var.). Black, brownish-black, 

 or reddish ; very closely allied to the preceding, with which it was for 

 many years mixed in collections, until INIr. Gorham in 18G1 pointed out 

 the differences ; its elytra are longer, and it is less parallel-sided ; the 

 vertex of the head is furnished with three raised lines which converge in 

 front, and the apical margin of the forehead is very sharply toothed in 

 male ; the central raised ridge of the abdomen is only continued on the 

 fourth visible segment as an inconspicuous tubercle. L. 2 mm. 



Found under the same circumstances as the preceding, and apparently commoner 

 in England; Scotland, rare, Forth district; not recorded from Ireland, but it is 

 probably common in tiiat country. 



M. tesserula, Curt. Yery much smaller than the other species, 

 and easily distinguished by the smooth and impunctale interstices of the 

 elytra, which are very finely shagreened ; the antennae are dark Avith the 

 base red, and the legs are red ; the elytra have only three raised lines on 

 each besides the suture ; only the first three visible segments of the ab- 

 domen are divided by ribs, and the fourth is slightly raised in the centre ; 

 the ribs, however, are not nearly so strongly marked as in the other 

 species. L. Ij- 1| rnm. 



In marshy places, on mud, also by sweeping ; rare; Fen districts of Cambridge- 

 shire, &c. ; Sherwood Forest (I once took a siDecimen by evening sweeping in a broad 

 ride far from any water as far as I could see) ; Grange, Lancashire ; Scotland, Low- 

 lands, very rare, Clyde district (Paisley, Morris Young). 



NITIDULIDiE. 



This family contains about a hundred genera, some of which comprise 

 a large number of species ; they are widely distributed throughout the 

 world both in temperate and tropical countries ; the position and extent 

 of the family is difficult to determine ; the genera and species vary very 

 much in structure and habitat, and probably several sub-families will 

 eventually be divided off as separate ; there is no doubt that the Niti- 

 dulidse have a connection with the Silphidse ; on the other hand, how- 

 ever, through Ijys and Kliizophagns, they closely approach the 

 Trogositidse ; in fact Erichson classed the latter family with the 

 Nitidulida^, but they are separated off as a distinct family by the different 

 plan of structure of the maxillai and tarsi. As a whole, perhaps, the 

 Nitidulidffi come in best between the Histeridse, to which in many ways 

 they bear a close relation, and the Trogositida? ; and if the aberrant genus 

 Micropeplus is to be removed from the Staphylinidie, as seems necessary, 

 to the neighbourhood of the Nitidulidse, it cannot be better placed than 

 immediately after the Histeridee, as a connecting link between OntliopMlus 

 and the brachypterous genera of the Nitidulidas. The chief characters 



