Mr. A. Murray on the Genus Cercyon. 79 



Oval, narrower behind. Upper side of body finely punctate. 

 Head and protborax shining black; the latter scarcely shorter 

 in the middle than at the sides. Elytra black with the extre- 

 mity gradually reddish, with light striae marked with cycloid 

 punctures ; the fourth stria almost angular at the fourth part of 

 its length, and rendering the fifth interval gradually broader 

 from this point to the base. 



Length 1^ to If line; breadth 1 to 1| line. 



This species is readily distinguished from all the others by its 

 greater size, being the largest of the genus, and by the fourth 

 stria on the elytra making an almost angular bend towards the 

 suture at a short distance from the base, thus gradually in- 

 creasing the breadth of the fifth interval at the base. The extent 

 of the paler reddish tint at the apex varies, and it may be as well 

 to mention here, that in this genus (indeed in the whole group) 

 colour is very little to be depended on. The whole genus has a 

 disposition to be paler at the apex than on the rest of the body, 

 but several of the species vary from dark black to pale testaceous. 

 The colouring matter appears to have circulated from the head 

 or middle of the prothorax to the extremity, and to have reached 

 different lengths in different indi%aduals, one haxdng the paleness 

 of the apex almost extinguished, while another has a pale blotch 

 extending halfway up the elytra, or even over the whole body. 



This, as well as all the other species of the genus, feeds on the 

 dung of herbivorous animals, or, as Mulsant more elegantly ex- 

 presses it, " on vegetable matter which has been animalized by 

 passing through the digestive tube of certain mammiferae." The 

 species is not rare in Britain, but is by no means so plentiful as 

 some of the following. 



C. hamorrhoidaley Fab., Steph., Muls. 

 melayiocephalum, var. /3. lUig. 

 obsoletum, De Castel. 



Body short, oval, narrower behind, finely punctate above. 

 Head and prothorax shining black, the latter a fom-th shorter on 

 the sides than in the middle, marked with a depression before 

 the scutellum. Elytra moderately convex on the back, convexly 

 subperpendicular on the sides ; black at the base, gradually be- 

 coming reddish brown or brown at the extremity, with striae 

 edged each by a row of cycloid punctures ; the fourth not an- 

 gular. 



Var. B. C. piceum, Marsh., Steph. 



Elytra entirely of a reddish brown, gradually paler towards 

 the extremity. 



