SEHRICOHXIA. 95 



narrowed and rather acuminate at apex, with rather fine punc- 

 tured >tri;e, interstices distinctly punctured; legs black, tarsi sometimes 

 reddish; tin 1 disc of the thorax is sometimes black, and occasionally 

 tin- whole thorax is black; the latter is the v. orcitanicus, Villers ; very 

 rarely the whole insect is entirely black. L. 14-16 mm. 



In decayed trees ; very rare; Hyde Park, London (Rev. A. Matthews);* Rich- 

 mond Park, Diii-fiith Wood, Windsor, Clt-ngre, and Hottisham (Stephens); Swansea, 

 in old willow (Dillwyii); the latest capture appears to have taken place in July, Is.'.x, 

 when a specimen was taken by a schoolboy on a poplar by the river Cam between 

 Cambridge and Grantchester, which was afterwards in the collection of Mr. T. Brown, 

 of Cambridge ; a few specimens are recorded us having been taken at Chesterton 

 near Cambridge, and at Bottisham, on walnut. 



XKEXiANOTUS, Eschscholtz. 



This genus contains considerably more than a hundred species, of 

 which a large proportion occur in tropical countries; twenty-one, how- 

 ever, are found in Europe, and the genus is well represented in North 

 America, but appears to be almost wanting in Asia; they are, as a rule, 

 rather large dark-coloured insects, and may be known from the allied 

 genera by their serrate tarsal claws ; the forehead is obtusely produced 

 in front; the antennse have the second and third joints short and nearly 

 equal; the ventral epipleurae are wanting, and the eyes are more or less 

 sunk in the thorax. 



The larva of M. castanipes is descril>ed and figured by Schiodte (Part v. p. 513, 

 pi. vii. fig. 1) ; the pupa is also figured on the same plate ; the larva is large and 

 broad, quite linear, with the head transverse, with powerful mandibles and very short 

 antennae, and the ninth segment of abdomen longer than is usual in the allied genera, 

 sinuate at sides and contracted to apex, where it terminates in a blunt point ; there 

 is a deep channel nil down the back of the thoracic and abdominal segments ; the 

 muscular impressions are small, dark, and elliptical, and are situated on each side of 

 the anterior margin of the segments, the prothoracic excepted ; the legs are .very 

 short ; the body is furnished on each side with small bunches of long setae on every 

 segment ; the pupa is long, and terminates in two distinct cerci, but does not call 

 for any particular comment ; the larva and pupa are found in decaying trees or 

 stumps. 



I. Antennae stouter ; sculpture coarser ; scutellum quad- 

 rate M. PtmCTOLINBATUS, Pel. 



II. Antennae more slender; sculpture less coarse ; scn- 

 tt Hum oblong. 



i. Elytra shorter, more narrowed towards apex in 



male ; average size smaller M. KUFIPKS, Herbst. 



ii. Elytra longer, less narrowed towards apex in male ; 



average size larger M. CASTANIPBS, Payk. 



*" Mr. Matthews writes to me as follows concerning this specimen : " One day wh-n 

 I was in London, Turner told me that he had seen a man employed in cutting up 

 wood in Hyde Park, who had what he called 'a big brown snap,' but that it had 

 been crushed flat by the wood ; I told him to get it and bring it to me, which he did 

 on the following day ; it was crushed as flat as a shilling, and wrapped up in part of 

 an old letter ; I Honked it in water for some time, and then stuffed it with cotton and 

 restored it to shape, and it is now a very good specimen." 



