236 BRITISH BEETLES. 



refuse heaps, or ants' nests, and are supposed to feed on 

 Acari. 



Our species (most of which are very small) are di- 

 vided into two sub-families, the Pselaphides and Clavige- 

 rides, in the former of which the eyes and palpi are well 

 developed, and the antennae are eleven-jointed, whilst 

 in the latter the eyes and parts of the mouth are obso- 

 lete, and the antennae are five-jointed, with a four- 

 jointed club. 



Of the Pselaphides many curious forms are found in 

 this country; the type genus Pselaphus affording two, 

 one of which, P. Heisii (Plate XVI, Fig. 4), is of fre- 

 quent occurrence in moss, and may be known from its 

 allies by its depressed body (which is broadest behind), 

 entire sutural striae, very long and thin palpi and legs, 

 and long and stout antennas. Its ally, P. dresdensis, is 

 darker, arid has a semicircular impressed line at the base 

 of the thorax. 



Our species of Bryaxis are found in wet marshy 

 places, among moss and reeds, at the sides of rivers, 

 or on the sea-shore under heaps of vegetable matter or 

 stones. They have long antennae, and are mostly black 

 or dark-brown, having often red elytra, and being some- 

 times entirely pale; their shape is more convex than 

 that of Pselaphus, their dorsal stria abbreviated, and 

 their thorax (which is convex and contracted behind) 

 usually has three large punctuations behind and at the 

 sides. The largest, B. sanguinea, has the antennae very 

 long in the male. 



The Bythini are much smaller, convex, and with short 

 antennae, of which the basal joint is much dilated. In 

 the males (which are by far the rarest) the second joint 

 .also is subject to a still more considerable increase in 



