384 CLAVICORNIA. \_Heterocerua. 



KSTBROCERUS, Fabriciu?. 



This genus contains about seventy or eighty species, which are 

 chiefly confined to the northern hemisphere and to temperate and cold 

 climates ; only two or three are known from South America, and a few 

 have been described from Cuba. India, and Ceylon ; the majority, how- 

 ever, inhabit North America, Northern Asia, and Europe ; the number 

 of European species is no less than thirty-four, or upwards of half of the 

 whole number described ; of these eight have been discovered in Britain, 

 although it must be admitted that one or two have been considered as 

 somewhat doubtfully indigenous ; the Heteroceri as a whole are very 

 similar in form and colour, and require great care in their determination ; 

 they are oblong insects, of more or less ovate form, thickly clothed with 

 short silky pubescence, which is often mixed with long hairs, and with 

 the elytra usually variegated with yellowish or reddish bands or spots 

 which are more or less irregular ; the punctuation is very fine ; one of 

 the chief points of distinction is the presence or absence of a margin at 

 the posterior angles of thorax, which is not very easy in many cases to 

 determine with certainty ; the species live in galleries which they 

 excavate in soft mud near pools or small' lakes or on the margins of 

 muddy streams ; the ramifications of these galleries are ' very con- 

 spicuous, and the insects may easily be detected by their means ; not 

 more than one, or two (probably male and female) beetles are found in 

 one burrow ; when disturbed they run from their galleries and take 

 flight ; they walk slowly with the anterior parts of the body considerably 

 elevated ; some authorities, as Westwood observes, have supposed the 

 habits of the species to be carnivorous, but this does not appear to have 

 been proved. 



I. Posterior angles of thorax not margined ; length 3^ 5^ 



mm. 



i. Elytra with transverse yellowish band behind middle 

 not interrupted. 



1. Male with a transverse tubercle on middle of cly- 

 pens ; antennae with first two joints yellow, club 



sometimes darker ; legs mostly yellow (H. FOSSOH, Kies.) 



(rectus, Wat.) 



2. Male with clypeus simple ; antenna? with first two 

 joints brownish -yellow, club brown; legs mostly 



black, anterior femora yellow H. FEMOHALIS, Kies. 



ii. Elytra with transverse yellowish band behind middle 



interrupted; legs reddish-yellow (H. ARENARITJ8, Kies.) 



II. Posterior angles of thorax distinctly margined ; length 



3-5 mm. 



i. Upper surface clothed with upright, somewhat woolly, 

 blackish-brown pubescence, intermingled with short 

 greyish hairs, which are thicker on the head and sides 



of thorax. 

 1. Form broader and more oval, somewhat depressed; 



general colour darker H. OBSOT/ETP-S, Curf, 



