166 BRITISH BEETLES. 



and the hinder coxae separated by a projection of the 

 abdomen. 



Notoxus monoceros (Plate X, Fig. 5), an elegant, 

 downy, little species, very variable in its markings, oc- 

 curs plentifully in sandy places, both at the seaside and 

 inland. Its thorax is produced in the middle into a 

 stout horn, which projects over the head (Fig. 5 ). 



The species of Anthicus are all very small, and have 

 been fancifully compared to ants, both on account of 

 their colours, small size, shape, and activity. They are 

 most abundant at the seaside, but are often common in- 

 land in heaps of garden refuse, etc. One of them (A. 

 instabilis) has the hinder tibiae in the male suddenly en- 

 larged into a rounded plate at the apex. 



It has been considered that Xylophilus and Euglenes 

 do not belong to this family, on account of their notched 

 eyes and the approximation of their posterior coxae ; for 

 which (and other) reasons they have (in company with 

 Scraptia, a genus of small and fragile species, very rare, 

 found in rotten wood, and hitherto associated with the 

 Melandryadce] been removed into the Pedilidce, a family 

 containing no other British exponents. In Euglenes the 

 male has very large eyes and long antennae; from which 

 circumstance, added to general facies and habits, it some- 

 what calls to mind certain of the smaller Ptinidte. 



The MORDELLID^E are, perhaps, the most readily dis- 

 tinguishable of any of the section, owing to their strong 

 family likeness. They are mostly small, widest in front, 

 contracted behind, with the pygidium exposed, and often 

 ending in an absolute spine; broadest and convex on 

 the upper side, but shelving down to a comparative ridge 

 on the lower surface (resembling nothing so much in 

 shape as one of the small segments of a peeled and 



