Cryptieina.] HETEROMERA. 7 



in Europe, of which one genus and one species occur in Britain ; they 

 may be distinguished from the preceding by having the hind coxse not 

 widely separate, the femora not elongate, the epipleune of the elytra 

 narrower, and the fact that the prosternum is furnished with a short 

 process behind the anterior coxae, and from the Pedinina and Opatrina 

 by the entire clypeus, and by not having the anterior tibiae dilated at 

 apex. 



CRYPTICUS, LatieUle. 



This genus contains upwards of thirty species, of which thirteen are 

 found in Europe, and the remainder have been described from Syria, 

 Algeria, the Canary -Islands, Siberia, Ceylon, &c. ; they are small or 

 moderate-sized insects, winged, with the antennae and legs slender, and 

 the third joint of the antennae only one and a half times as long as the 

 second ; the thorax is large and ample, a little broader than elytra, emar- 

 ginate at base ; the upper surface is smooth and glabrous, and moderately 

 convex. 



The larva and pnpa of C. quuquilius are described and figured by Schiodte (I.e. 

 pp. 536, 586, pi. vii. fig. 1, 5) ; the larva is very long and slender, being thirteen 

 times as long as broad (that of Slaps similis being ouly eight times longer than its 

 breadth) ; the head is moderately large, and is furnished near each antenna with 

 three very minute ocelli ; the prothorax is longer than the two following segments 

 together, and the anal segment is moderately long and rounded at apex ; the front 

 pairs of legs are comparatively long and stout, and are evidently fossorial ; the colour 

 is almost entirely yellowish ; the pupa is much longer than broad, and is furnished at 

 the sides of the segments with dentate excrescences or plates (termed by Schiodte 

 " laminae motorlce ") bearing long setse ; the apex is terminated by two moderately 

 long and sharp cerci ; the insect in all its stages is found in sandhills. 



C. quisquilius, L. Subovate, convex, glabrous, black, rather 

 shining, with the head and thorax very finely and the elytra less finely 

 and more distinctly punctured; antennae rather long and slender; head 

 much narrower than thorax, which is large, and rather broader at base 

 than elytra, and is furnished on disc with two more or less obsolete 

 impressions ; elytra broadest a little behind middle, gradually narrowed 

 to apex, with faint traces of striae ; legs long, black or pitchy. 

 L. 5-6 mm. 



Male with the last joint of the maxillary palpi very large, sublunate, 

 and the last ventral segment of abdomen truncately rounded at apex. 



Female with the last joint of the maxillary palpi slightly securiform, 

 and the last ventral segment of the abdomen semicircular. 



Sandy places on the coast at roots of grass, and in moss; somewhat local, but 

 not uncommon; Southend ; Sheerness; Felixstowe ; Brandon, Suffolk; Great 

 Yarmouth; Hunstanten; Dover; Deal; Sandwich ; Hastings; Chesil Beach; 

 Wcymonth ; Scilly Islands; Rhyl, X. Wales; Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire; not 

 recorded from the northern counties of England or from Scotland ; Ireland, Port- 

 marnock near Dublin and Belfast district. 



