BRACHELYTBA. 69 



vegetable matter, or haunting very wet places. Among 

 the exceptions to these habitats, it may be remarked 

 that a few species live under bark, in flowers, in sand 

 or shingle, sometimes beneath the tide-mark, or as pa- 

 rasites upon insects of the order Hymenoptera. 



Many authors place this section at the extreme end 

 of the Coleoptera, either with the idea of a circular 

 system, coming back to the Geodephaga at the begin- 

 ning through Dromius and Omalium, or wishing to 

 establish a link with the Dermaptera, or Earwigs. Such 

 a position, however, if only by removing it from its close 

 ally, the section of Necrophaga, seems directly opposed 

 to the natural affinities of its members. 



The Brachelytra are nearly always of an elongate, 

 linear, and flattened shape ; rarely convex ; moderate in 

 size, the majority being very small, and some exceedingly 

 minute ; dull, or slightly metallic in colour, occasionally 

 ornamented with red or yellow spots on the elytra, and 

 but rarely exhibiting bright tints. Some are very po- 

 lished and destitute of hairs, but the greater part are 

 clothed with a fine short pubescence, which is in a few 

 instances long and thick. 



Among the points to be noticed in discriminating be- 

 tween closely allied forms, the following will be found 

 most worthy of attention : the relative length and 

 width of the joints of the antennae and tarsi, the degree 

 of punctuation and pubescence, the length of the elytra, 

 the markings (if any) on the thorax, and the sexual 

 characters afforded by the sculpture, etc., of the under 

 side of the terminal segments of the abdomen in the 

 males of very many species. 



This sculpture usually takes the form of a more or 

 less angulated or deeply impressed notch in the hinder 



