The Beetles of the Downs 



a locality as this. One, 0. azureus, we should know at 

 once, as it is dark blue-green in colour, rather shining, 

 and the only one which is not some shade more or less 

 dark of red or yellow-brown. Out of the fourteen species 

 of Ophonus there are about eight which are exceedingly 

 difficult to distinguish and more or less rare. This 

 0. brevicollis may be known by its short thorax, and it is 

 also one of the commonest of them all. One or two 

 other of the less rare species are fond of sitting in the 

 centre of the concave umbels of the wild carrot, where I 

 have found them in the Isle of Wight in abundance, but 

 generally it is best for the student of beetles to put aside 

 his Ophoni, with their data, till he has accumulated 

 sufficient to be able to compare a considerable number 

 with each other and with, if he can get or borrow them, 

 authentically named examples. 



A beetle perhaps more easy to determine we may find 

 in the sweep net if we brush the long grass at the side of 

 the path ; it is a long dark green insect with long legs 

 and antennae and a very narrow body. At first it may 

 remind one of a Telephorus or Rhagonycha (Plate I., 

 Fig. 16). It has the same elongate form and soft 

 leathery elytra, but there is no Telephorus of the dark 

 sage-green colour which distinguishes this beetle, and if we 

 look carefully at the antennae we shall see they are thread- 

 like all the way up and not toothed or serrate like those 

 of a Telephorus. To allocate it to its proper group we 

 shall have to count (with the glass) the number of joints 

 in its tarsi, and when we find that although the front 

 and middle pairs have the normal number of five, the 



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