Common Beetles of our Countryside 



Then we ought to notice a much smaller beetle, only 

 about 3 mm. long, rather similar in shape and with the 

 long wing cases of a Lesteva or a Geodromicus but 

 narrower ; this, like the last mentioned, is one of the 

 two members of a separate genus called Anthophagus, 

 and this species is named Anthophagus alpinus (the 

 Alpine Anthophagus), Fig. 4, Plate VI. It is pro- 

 portionately narrower than any Lesteva, and its elytra 

 and legs are of a straw-yellow colour, the remainder of 

 the insect being shining black. In the male the jaws are 

 very strongly developed and there is a sharp projecting 

 horn on each side of the head ; these distinctions, the 

 small, narrow shape and special colour render it 

 impossible to mistake this beetle, if we have it on our 

 paper. The other species of the same genus, A . testaceus, 

 occurs only in Scotland and the extreme north of 

 England. 



Next there comes into view a distinctly larger beetle 

 than any that we have seen from this moss so far ; very 

 parallel-sided and with shorter legs : it is Acidota crenata 

 (the wrinkled Acidota), Fig. 14, Plate VI., again a mem- 

 ber of atwo-species genus, comprising this, which is essen- 

 tially an Alpine species, and another, Acidota cmentata, 

 which often occurs in lowland localities in the south. A . 

 crenata is an elongate parallel-sided beetle, about 6 mm. 

 long, dark reddish-brown with the margins of the thorax, 

 the apical edge of the elytra and edges of segments of 

 the hind body lighter, the thorax, which is oval and rather 

 narrowed in front, is thickly punctured, and there are 

 regular lines of distinct punctured striae on the elytra; 



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