86 HETEROMERA. [AlltkicUS. 



Salt marshes ; running about on wet mud ; often beneath seaweed and flood refuse ; 

 not uncommon locally ; Gravesend, Sheerness, Chatham, Whitstuble, Southern! ; Di-al ; 

 Portsmouth; Byde; Lymington; Weymoutb. 



A. salinus, Crotch. Very closely allied to the preceding, from 

 which it may be distinguished by having the front of thorax broader, 

 at least as wide as, or wider than, head, with the sides more strongly 

 and suddenly narrowed behind, and also by its more delicate and close 

 punctuation ; colour unicolorous black, upper surface clothed with grey 

 pubescence ; thorax very closely and finely punctured, comparatively 

 dull; elytra more shiny, with the punctuation slightly rugose in parts; 

 legs reddish, with femora pitchy. L. 2-2| mm. 



In salt marshes ; very local, and as a rule rare ; Gravesend ; Chatham ; Lymington 

 Salterns (abundant in spring) ; Overton, Hampshire; Portsmouth district ; Portland. 



A. floralis, L. Kufo-testaceous, rather shining, with the posterior 

 two-thirds of the elytra, and usually the head and abdomen, dark ; the 

 femora and the disc of thorax are also often more or less infuscate, 

 so that the general colour is sometimes dark with the base of elytra, 

 antennae, tibia? and tarsi reddish ; head straight or almost straight at 

 base, very finely punctured; antennae comparatively stout; thorax in 

 front about as broad as head, finely punctured, with two small tubercles 

 in the middle of its front portion separated by a more or less distinct 

 furrow which extends for a greater or less length on the disc of the 

 thorax ; elytra much broader at base than base of thorax, closely and 

 finely punctured, the punctuation being evidently finer than in most of 

 the allied species. L. 3-3| mm. 



Male with the pygidium convex and exserted. 



In haystack refuse, manure heaps, hotbeds, &c. ; often in gardens ; generally dis- 

 tributed and common throughout England and Wales; it is probably generally dis- 

 tributed in at least the southern half of Scotland, but has only been recorded as yet 

 from the Forth district ; Ireland, Dublin and Belfast, and probably general. 



V. quisquiliusj Thorns, (basilaris, Say.). This variety, which by 

 Thomson and other authors is considered a separate species, differs from 

 the type in being less shining, and considerably more closely punctured, 

 and especially in hdving the two tubercles 011 the front of the thorax 

 absent ; in other respects it almost exactly resembles the ordinary form; 

 as it occurs with the type and appears to be quite as common and 

 generally distributed, and as, besides, the size of the tubercles in 

 A. JloraUs appears to be variable, I cannot but think that it must be 

 regarded as only a variety, 



A. instabilis, Schmidt. Fuscous, pitchy-brown, or dark red-brown, 

 with the elytra lighter towards base ; the colour, however, is variable, 

 as in the preceding species, and the specimens are lighter or darker ; 

 pubescence greyish, coarser and more distinct than in several of the 

 allied species ; head with the base slightly rounded, but not nearly as 



