64 CLAVICORNIA. [Choleva. 



black or dark brown club, basal joints red ; thorax very transverse, with 

 the sides plainly rounded, narrowed in front and behind, posterior angles 

 sharp right angles, somewhat projecting ; elytra finely and thickly 

 punctured, with indistinct striae, and with an ashy-grey bloom ; legs 

 ferruginous, femora often darker. L. 4-4f mm. 



In dead birds and animals, decaying fungi, &c. ; generally distributed tbrougbout 

 the greater part of England, and occasionally taken in numbers, but rarer in the north 

 than in the south and midland districts ; Northumberland district not common (Bold); 

 Scotland, not common, Solway, Tweed, Forth, Dee and Moray districts. 



C. fumata, Spence (scitultts, Er.). Oblong oval, of a deep pitchy- 

 brown colour, sometimes almost black ; antennas short and thick, but 

 with the club not broad, usually unicolorous reddish, and joints 4-5 hardly 

 transverse ; thorax almost semicircular, forming a continuous or almost 

 continuous line with elytra, not narrowed at base, very transverse, thickly 

 and finely punctured, with distinct greyish pubescence, posterior angles 

 sharp and somewhat projecting ; elytra oval, thickly punctured, without 

 trace of striae ; legs ferruginous. L. 3 mm. 



In dead birds and animals, haystack refuse, &c. ; rather common and generally 

 distributed throughout the country. I once took it in great profusion by shaking a 

 hedgehog hung up by a keeper in Seal Wood, near Burton-ou-Trent ; it is common in 

 Scotland, but Bold records only one specimen from the Northumberland district ; he 

 has probably confused this and the next species. 



C. Watsoni, Spence (agilis, F., fumatiis, Er., nee Spence). Very 

 like the preceding, and rather hard to distinguish from it ; in fact, it has 

 by many authors been regarded as only a variety ; the club of the 

 antennae, however, is broader, with joints 4-6 transverse, and is, usually, 

 of a darker colour, and the posterior angles of the thorax are right angles, 

 and are not, or scarcely, projecting; the differences, however, as a matter 

 of fact are very slight, and it would perhaps be the best course to unite the 

 two species, which are very distinct from, any that we possess; they most 

 closely resemble G. sericeus, at first sight, but are, of course, easily 

 distinguished by the elytra not being truncate at apex. L. 3 mm. 



In dead animals, &c. ; often by sweeping ; not uncommon and generally distributed 

 throughout the greater part of England. Bold records it as very abundant in moss, 

 dead leaves, &c., in the Northumberland district. Scotland, not common, Solway, 

 Forth, and Dee districts. Hold's record, as above mentioned, may be in error. 



(Sub-Gen. Nemadus, Thomson.) 



This sub-genus only contains one very rare British species, which is 

 distinguished from all the preceding species by having the mesostermun 

 carinate and the elytra finely but distinctly cross-striated, and from 

 Catops, which it resembles in these particulars, by the fine mesosternal 

 carina, the dilatation of the first joint of the intermediate tarsi of 

 the male, and the fact that the apex of the elytra is rounded and not 

 truncate. 



