The Beetles of the Moorlands 



peaks which stand out on the distant horizon or get away 

 into Scotland or Ireland. 



The next beetle we find hidden under a large stone 

 near the brook side may very likely be one of the larger 

 Brachelytra, a sub-group we are now able to recognize 

 by their very short elytra and long flexible hind bodies. 

 This present species is a rather large beetle, quite 15 mm. 

 long, black with the elytra clear brick-red, the first three 

 joints of the antennae and the legs also red, and in 

 quite fresh specimens there are little patches of golden 

 hair or pubescence on the front of the head, the scutellum 

 (the little triangular plate at the base of the elytra), and 

 on some of the segments of the hind body ; the head 

 is large and broad, evidently larger than the thorax, the 

 antennae rather short and thick, the thorax a little 

 longer than broad with the hinder angles rounded off, 

 densely and finely punctured all over, the scutellum 

 back clothed with the golden pubescence already men- 

 tioned, the elytra together nearly square, punctured like 

 the thorax, hind body quite black. Its name is Staphy- 

 linus erythropterus (the red wing [cased] Staphylinus), 

 Fig. 1 8, Plate V. We have four of these fine large 

 Brachelytra with red wing cases belonging to the genus 

 Staphylinus, none of them at all common, the largest of 

 them, S. ccesareus, much resembling an ordinary "Devil's 

 Coach Horse," with red elytra, and is not so rare in 

 Ireland as it is in this country. Then there is a smaller 

 species, S. latebricola, which we find sometimes in the 

 South, especially the New Forest. This 5. erythropterus, 

 and one very like it 5. stercorarius, neither of which is 



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