Common Beetles of our Countryside 



somewhat strongly punctured, darker in colour than 

 the thorax, with the edges often lighter and the hind 

 body black, the antennae short, reddish colour with 

 the first joint long and the last two or three very short, 

 the legs yellow. This Othius can be found in moss, in 

 woods in most parts of the country, but seems more 

 especially abundant in the North and West. And now 

 the wood in whose shadow we have been hitherto walking 

 begins to thin out, the brook is still fringed by a few 

 stunted birches and alders, but where the larches end 

 we step out on to the open grass of the hill side, the 

 lichen covered rock crops out here and there among the 

 grass and fern, or forms little shelves over which the 

 brook rushes with the pleasant sound of broken water. 

 A little higher and perhaps we come to a more level 

 stretch, and here the stream has widened out and 

 about its margin lies a shingle of small water rounded 

 stones. 



Under these stones and among the wet gravel in which 

 they lie we shall certainly discover several species of 

 Anchomenus and Bembidium which we have not hitherto 

 met with. They are both, as may be remembered, genera 

 of Geodephaga (see Plate II., Figs. 2 and 16). The 

 Bembidia, generally small active beetles, known by 

 the very minute needle like last joint of the maxillary 

 palpi ; the Anchomeni rather larger, graceful in shape, 

 with rather long legs and antennae, and often brightly 

 coloured. Our first capture, made perhaps where the 

 stones lie with their lower surface actually in the water, 

 will be one of the latter called Anchomenus albipes (the 



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