BRACHELYTRA. 83 



The species of Xantholinus have a peculiar habit of 

 curling (or rather " doubling ") themselves up in repose, 

 their linear shape and free joints allowing numerous 

 angular bends; their head is very elongate, not con- 

 tracted at the base, with small eyes placed near the 

 front, which is deeply furrowed and connected with the 

 thorax by a small cylindrical neck, and they may 

 generally be separated by the dorsal punctuation of the 

 thorax, which varies considerably in amount and degree. 

 A variety (with the thorax entirely reddish) of the pret- 

 tiest species, X. tricolor, occurs not rarely at the seaside 

 in the south ; and the type-form, which is rufo- testa- 

 ceous, with the head, base of the thorax, and the abdo- 

 men pitchy, has been taken under refuse in Scotland, 

 where (and, indeed, all over the country, also) Baplolinus 

 alternans, a flat, broad-headed, gaily-coloured insect, is 

 found under bark. 



Xantholinus fulgidus (Plate IV, Fig. 5), a shining black 

 species, with bright red elytra, lives in hotbeds, vege- 

 table refuse, dead wood, etc. 



The ~PMVERIVJE have the prothoracic spiracles hidden, 

 and the antennae inserted under the apex of the lateral 

 margin of the forehead ; the space behind the anterior 

 coxae is membranous, and the posterior coxae are conic. 

 Their maxillary palpi are more or less elongate, with the 

 apical joint subulate or pointed and very small; the 

 labrum and ligula both bilobed (the apex of the latter 

 being tridentate in Scopteus}, the apical joint of the 

 labial palpi small and pointed, and the paraglossse linear 

 and ciliated on the inner side. The mandibles are 

 slender, sharp, and long; the head either attached to 

 the thorax by a slender neck, or distinctly pedunculated ; 

 and the tarsi, which are all five-jointed, have the fourth 



G 2 



