The Beetles of the Moorlands 



later on in the summer one may turn over nearly every 

 stone on the moor without seeing one. 



By this time we have left the track by the brook 

 side and have struck across the lower slopes by a rough 

 path that seems to lead up to the steeper elevations 

 beyond ; by the side of this path there lie many scattered 

 stones deep among the heather, and besides this 

 Cymindis we are almost sure to find under some of 

 them two species of Bradycellus B. cognatus and 

 B. similis. We have already taken one species of 

 this genus, viz. : B. harpalinus (see Plate II. 

 Fig. 5). B. cognatus (the allied Bradycellus), Fig. 2, 

 Plate V., is the same size as harpalinus, about 4 mm. 

 in length, but under the glass it will be seen that the 

 hinder angles of the thorax, although obtuse, are quite 

 distinct, and as already stated it is the variation of 

 these hinder angles which in Bradycellus is one of the 

 criteria of its species. Moreover the colour is different ; 

 this cognatus is a much darker insect, the head is black 

 and the disc of the thorax dark brown, leaving only 

 the margins yellowish, and usually the greater part 

 of the elytra is dark brown, leaving only the shoulders, 

 the side margins and a streak down the centre yellow- 

 brown, but the species varies a good deal in the strength 

 and extent of this darker coloration. However, it 

 is the only Bradycellus we are likely to find up here 

 among the heather except the other species referred 

 to, B. similus (the Bradycellus like the others) Fig. 3, 

 Plate V., and that is distinctly smaller, being only 

 3 mm. long that is, about the average size of a 



47 



