CARABID^E. ANCHOMENUS. 81 



ovate, rather wider than the thorax, convex, striated, the striae 

 impunctate, except that there are two or three impressions on 

 the second from the suture and an irregular series on the outer 

 margin ; the margins of the thorax and of the elytra are some- 

 times very narrowly edged with ferruginous; legs pale red. 

 Length 3 lines. 



Rather local, but somewhat widely distributed ; on banks of 

 rivers in the midland counties ; in the Isle of Wight ; near 

 Dorchester; Dorking; North Wales; Yorkshire, and other north- 

 ern counties, and also in Scotland and Ireland. " On damp 

 banks at Coombe; Darenth; Bottisham; Netley; in Norfolk, &c." 

 Mr. Stephens. 



Genus 31. ANCHOMENUS, Auctorum. 



Mentum dente medio integro. Ligula apice truncata ; paraglossis 

 ei aqualibus. Palpi articulo ultimo cylindrico. Mandibulre 

 subarcuatcp, acute. Labrum quadratum, apice truncatum. 

 Tarsi antici maris articulis tribus dilatatis, \mgmcn\i simplices. 



This genus comprehends Platynus, Anchomenus and Agonum, 

 which had been established by Bonelli on the ground of certain 

 differences in the external structure of the thorax and elytra, the 

 posterior angles of the former being obtuse in those species 

 assigned by him to Agonum, but acute and prominent in those 

 arranged under Platynus and Anchomenus ; and the two latter 

 genera were furthermore represented as being distinguishable 

 from each other by a supposed variation in the form of the 

 elytron. It appeared, however, upon examination of a series of 

 species, that these characters were altogether artificial, some 

 species in one genus bearing a greater affinity to those of another 

 genus with which by such an arrangement they were so far dis- 

 connected, than to those with which they were placed in imme- 

 diate juxtaposition; and not only so, but these characters pre- 

 vailed equally if not more so in other genera with which they 

 were not grouped at all ; consequently these subdivisions have 

 now been altogether abandoned (or treated by some authors as 

 subgenera], and the genus Anchomenus has been generally adopted 

 to comprise the whole, that name demanding the preference, be- 

 cause Platynus, though employed for the same purpose by Brulle, 

 had previously been appropriated in another order (Diptera] . 



(PLATYNUS, Bonelli.) 



1 . A. junceus : niger, nitidus ; tliorace cordato, late marginatu, 

 angulis posticis acutiusculis ; elytris ovatis > striatis punctis- 

 que tribus impressis; ore antennis pedibusque piceo-brunneis. 



