Common Beetles of our Countryside 



hind body tapered off, to a point and long legs ; they are 

 nearly all entirely black, and very coarsely punctured. 

 The colour of the legs, however, varies considerably, some 

 being black, some yellow, and some part one and part the 

 other ; the size extends from 3 to 5 mm. long. They are 

 generally common beetles in wet places, but a few species 

 are attached to dry localities and among these is one 

 Stenus Erichsoni (named after Erichson, another German 

 entomologist), Fig. 2, Plate IV., which occurs especially 

 on dry chalky slopes and may well be found among the 

 rubbish we are now investigating. It is about 3 mm. 

 long, entirely black, rather strongly punctured all over, 

 head much wider than thorax, with very large eyes, 

 thorax about as long as broad, with a distinct central 

 channel, legs and antennae yellow, the latter with the 

 club darker. 



The special points which distinguish this species 

 are, that the last two tar sal joints of the front 

 legs are bilobed, that is, heart-shaped, flattened and 

 spread out, that the edges of the exposed part of the 

 hind body below the elytra are slightly turned up 

 (margined, as it is called) and that the elytra taken 

 together are not square or oblong but widened out 

 behind, so that the breadth across the apex is quite 

 noticeably greater than it is across the base. These 

 distinctions, the last one being specific, will require a 

 glass to make them out satisfactorily, but they will 

 distinguish Stenus Erichsoni from any other Stenus we 

 may happen to take. The species is common in some 

 localities such as Dorking, but rare anywhere away from 



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